The UK’s competition regulator has issued three tips for pet owners amid concerns they are paying too much on vet bills and are not given enough information about treatment options.

It follows a March update of a review into the UK’s £5bn veterinary services industry by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which said pet owners could be paying too much for medicines or prescriptions.

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The watchdog on Thursday said it was launching a full market investigation into the UK’s veterinary sector.

It advised animal owners to:

• Shop around for a vet and don’t always go to the closest one

• Ask the vet if there are other treatment options

• Think about buying medication from places other than your vet if it’s not an emergency

About 60% of vet practices now belong to large companies, up from 10% a decade ago – almost 90% of vets in the UK were independent in 2013. The six large corporate vet groups in the UK are CVS, IVC, Linnaeus, Medivet, Pets at Home, and VetPartners.

Key regulatory concerns

The CMA said it had five key concerns: whether consumers are getting the right information at the right time to make informed decisions; how limited choice in some areas is impacting pet owners; whether vet profits are consistent with “levels expected in a competitive market”; if vets are incentivised and able to limit choice when providing treatments or recommendations – particularly when they are part of large vet groups; and if the regulation is preventing the market functioning as well as it could.

“The message from our vets work so far has been loud and clear – many pet owners and professionals have concerns that need further investigation,” Sarah Cardell chief executive of the CMA said.

“We’ve heard from people who are struggling to pay vet bills, potentially overpaying for medicines and don’t always know the best treatment options available to them.”

Roughly 16 million UK households have pets, the CMA added.

A full market investigation

The first few months of the investigation will focus on gathering and analysing more evidence from a wide range of interested parties.

Since the sector review started in September the CMA received 56,000 responses to its call from pet owners and vet industry workers.

The full investigation will take time, said Martin Coleman the chair of the inquiry group.

“Market investigations are, by their nature, comprehensive and complex. They require time to fully explore concerns and to ensure that all points of view are heard so we can reach the right outcomes and take appropriate action, if needed, to make the market work for everyone.”

Paula Vennells arrived at the Post Office public inquiry a former chief executive, a former Church of England lay preacher and an ex-CBE, with only her reputation, and perhaps her liberty, left to defend.

After more than five hours of questioning she has done very little to restore the former, with the latter still very much a live issue.

While she was giving evidence her nemesis Alan Bates was meeting the Metropolitan Police to discuss their ongoing investigation.

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The day went horribly for Ms Vennells from the moment she stepped from her car in torrential rain and was met by the sort of media scrum reserved for superstars and the shamed.

Navigating hordes of cameras and reporters is the 21st century’s version of the public stocks.

Having avoided scrutiny for nearly nine years, during which time the Post Office she ran has been revealed as deceitful, vindictive and shambolic, she should have expected nothing less.

Inside she faced an audience of around 150 sub-postmasters, the toughest of crowds for the person ultimately responsible for sending many of them to jail for crimes they didn’t commit.

After a reminder from the inquiry chair Sir Wynn Williams about her right to avoid self-incrimination, her opening gambit was an apology.

She said sorry to the sub-postmasters and families whose lives had been ruined. She said sorry specifically to Mr Bates and Lord Arbuthnot, their Parliamentary champion, and the investigators from Second Sight, who exposed the Post Office’s failings on her behalf and she shut down for their trouble.

The respite lasted as long as it took Jason Beer KC to clear his throat. The lead counsel to the inquiry’s principal weapon was irony and it was devastating, the more so for apparently being lost on Ms Vennells.

“Are you the unluckiest chief executive in history?” he asked.

After a pause, the first of many, she replied: “One of my reflections on all of this is that I was too trusting.”

That captured her fundamental defence, which is that during 12 years at the Post Office, seven of them as chief executive, she was entirely unaware of the multiple issues that led to the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.

After listing the multiple things she claims in her 775-page witness statement not to have known, from bugs in the Horizon computer system to instructions to shred documents, Mr Beer asked: “Was there a conspiracy, lasting 12 years, involving different people over time to deny you documents and falsely reassure?”

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After careful consideration she concluded conspiracy might be going too far. “My deep sorrow is that individuals, myself included, made mistakes, didn’t see things, didn’t hear things,” she said.

Throughout the hearing she claimed not to have been aware of fundamental issues. For example she said she did not know the Post Office could investigate and prosecute its staff, a power it has had since the 17th century, until she became chief executive.

When confronted with clear evidence she ought to have been aware of issues, in the form of emails and documents she admitted to sending and receiving, she claimed not to have understood their true meaning at the time.

Several times she was moved to tears. More frequently she was stunned into silence by questions, struggling to summon answers when trapped by the contradictions in her evidence.

The sub-postmasters meanwhile struggled to contain their disdain, hollow laughter greeting several answers.

There was no laughter when she was challenged about suicide of sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths, and an email in which she appeared to attribute it to his mental health, rather than the actions of Post Office investigators who were pursuing him.

“Sorry is not an adequate world, I am just very sorry that Mr Griffiths is not here today,” she said.

She has two more days in the witness stand, and on this evidence, nowhere to go.

Plans for a multibillion pound mass market sale of the government’s stake in NatWest Group have been derailed by Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a summer general election.

Sky News can reveal that a proposed retail offer of shares in the taxpayer-backed bank will be scuppered by the timing of the poll.

The Treasury has been preparing for months for a retail offering, with several billion pounds-worth of NatWest shares to be offloaded at a discount to the prevailing market price.

Under the government’s plans, it would have taken place alongside an institutional placing of shares, with taxpayers’ stake to be reduced to as little as 10% after the combined sale.

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Several sources confirmed while the prime minister addressed the country from Downing Street that the NatWest retail offer was “now in the deep freeze”.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, announced in last year’s autumn statement that he would explore a mass-market share sale “to create a new generation of retail investors”.

Since that point, further buybacks by the bank and stock sales by the government have reduced the taxpayer’s stake to around 28% – worth about £7bn at NatWest’s current valuation.

A retail offer could yet be revived after the general election, with Labour not ruling out support for the idea in recent months.

However, the delay induced by the general election is likely to postpone the timing of the government’s full privatisation of NatWest, 16 years after it was rescued from the brink of collapse with £45.5bn of public money.

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Shares in NatWest have risen by more than 20% over the last year despite the turbulence surrounding the debanking row involving Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader.

Mr Farage, who has threatened to launch legal action against the bank, recently declared his fight with the lender “far from over”.

The government’s stake in NatWest has been steadily reduced during the last eight years from almost 85%.

NatWest, which changed its name from Royal Bank of Scotland Group in an attempt to distance itself from its hubristic overexpansion, was rescued from outright collapse by an emergency bailout that Fred Goodwin, its then boss, likened to “a drive-by shooting”.

NatWest declined to comment.