Guidance

Veterinary Medicines Directorate Objectives 2022/23

Published 5 October 2022

Reference	Objective	Action
REF 1	Delivery of core regulatory services, with overall performance against published standards to be at or above the effective level (≥92% of performance indicators met).	We will continue authorisation of veterinary medicines in the UK and create an environment that provides confidence and investment within the medicines industry and enables exports. We will continue work to protect the food chain, human and animal health as well as the environment and biodiversity. We will ensure unsafe medicines can be identified, and appropriate corrective action taken including, where appropriate, removal from the market; ensure confidence in veterinary medicines, assisting competitiveness, aid consumer confidence, assisting with safety and helping to ensure medicines are used responsibly to maintain effectiveness. We will continue to raise awareness of the work of the VMD and why it is important that veterinary medicines are properly regulated and used, and enable effective feedback on our work.
REF 2	Enhance staff well-being, increasing resilience and timely recruitment.	We will maintain a well-trained, motivated and content workforce; monitor staff well-being; manage vacancies and increase Apprenticeship enrolments.
REF 3	Progressing VMRs for GB and NI to be able to lay secondary legislation in 2023.	We will ensure that availability of animal medicines in the UK is not compromised and that the UK remains attractive to the pharmaceutical industry for marketing authorisations applications and complying with all post authorisation regulations.
REF 4	Develop an Anthelmintic Resistance program with stakeholders.	We will support the establishment of a pan-industry equine working group and continue to support existing pan-industry groups and contribute to development of anthelmintic resistance aspects of Defra’s Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.
REF 5	Engage internationally with other regulatory authorities, including capacity building.	We will provide international scientific and technical capability, governance and policy and regulatory expertise and support relating to antimicrobial resistance and use internationally. We will participate in initiatives to improve global standards on regulation of veterinary medicines; improve medicines regulation in Sub Sahara Africa, and develop and deliver a tailored curriculum of regulatory, policy and surveillance training activities for external candidates.
REF 6	Securely run and maintain existing services to high levels of availability, further develop our digital service offering and instigate the IT legacy transformation programme.	We will continue to run and maintain our modular systems but only invest in changing or enhancing them where it is absolutely necessary. This is because we will undertake the readiness activities required for us to be able to instigate a Programme of work to incrementally replace the legacy modular systems with more functional and maintainable services, exploiting Microsoft PowerApps. In parallel, we will continue to bug fix, address technical debt and apply user feedback to the VMD digital service as well as delivering the new Special Imports service line.
REF 7	Continued delivery of the AMR one-health National Action Plan, including publishing the VARSS report.	We will maintain VMD’s responsibility in the UK for veterinary medicines policy, and animal health aspects of antimicrobial resistance in England, in the broader context of Defra’s Animal Health and welfare responsibilities, contributing to safeguarding public health.
REF 8	Deliver the expectations for VMD as part of the wider Defra Sustainability program.	We will engage with the Defra Sustainability Strategy to implement initiatives to meet shared Defra group aims on sustainability, carbon reduction and working towards net-zero.