Information for food businesses about the Food Hygiene Information Scheme safeguards
You'll automatically be given a new FHIS outcome each time your premises are inspected by your local authority. The frequency of these planned inspections depends on the risk to people’s health. The greater the risk, the more often you will be inspected.
The food hygiene outcome given reflects the inspection findings. The purpose is to allow people to make informed choices about where they eat or buy food, encouraging businesses to improve their hygiene standards.
If you have any questions about food hygiene inspections or the FHIS rating of a particular food business, please contact your local authority.
To ensure that the scheme is fair to businesses, it has been designed to include a number of safeguards. These are:
You can ask for a re-visit before the next planned inspection if:
This means that the hygiene standards in your premises can be reassessed, with a view to giving you a FHIS Pass.
Take time to read the report or letter from your food safety officer. It includes comments about your hygiene standards and any issues found. Make sure you’ve taken steps to fix anything that was raised.
If you’re unsure about anything, speak to your food safety officer—they can offer advice and help you improve.
You’re only allowed one follow-up visit between your regular inspections, so it’s important to be ready. During this re-visit, the officer will look at your overall standards—not just the areas you’ve worked on. This means your rating could improve from “Improvement Required” to “Pass,” or it might stay the same.
You should put your request in writing to the food safety officer that undertook the inspection of your premises – you will be given the contact details for this officer when you are notified about your FHIS outcome. You can do this by completing an appeal form or you can send a letter or an email.
You must:
This is important as the local authority could refuse your request if you do not provide sufficient information and evidence.
If the request is refused, you'll be given an explanation of why and advice on any action you need to take or evidence you need to provide before your request can be agreed. If you do not agree with the local authority’s decision to refuse your request, you can raise the matter with the Lead Officer for Food.
If you cannot resolve matters with the Lead Officer for Food, you can use the complaints procedure for your local authority, details of which may be found on the local authority’s website.
Not at the moment but it's possible that this may change in the future.
There is no deadline for this – you can ask at any time after you’ve taken action to make the necessary improvements that were identified at your inspection. You cannot, however, dictate when the re-visit will take place.
At the re-visit, the food safety officer will assess the standards of hygiene at your premises and you will be told in writing – either at the time or within 14 days (this includes weekends and bank holidays) – what your new FHIS outcome is. This could stay the same as before, or become a ‘Pass’.
As with the original FHIS outcome, you can appeal this if you think it is wrong or unfair or you can submit a ‘Right to Reply’ for publication online.
If you're given a FHIS ‘Improvement Required’ and you think that this it does not reflect the hygiene standards at the time of inspection, then you can appeal against this.
First speak informally to the food safety officer who carried out the inspection – you will be given their contact details with your outcome notification. This will help you to decide if you still want to appeal.
Please note that any discussions you have do not change the deadline within which the appeal must be made.
You must make your appeal in writing. You can do this by completing a standard form or you can send a letter or an email. You should send your completed form, letter or email to your local authority’s Lead Officer for Food. You will be given the contact details for this officer when you're notified about your FHIS outcome.
You must make your appeal in writing within 14 days of being notified about your FHIS outcome. This period includes weekends and public holidays.
If you do not appeal within this time, your local authority will publish your FHIS outcome online.
If you make an appeal, the FHIS website will show that your FHIS outcome is ‘Awaiting publication’.
The Lead Officer for food or his/her designated deputy, or the Lead Officer or his/her designated deputy in another authority that is also operating the FHIS, will review your case. The officer that gave the FHIS outcome will not consider your appeal. In some circumstances, a further visit to your premises may be required.
You will be notified of the result of the appeal within a maximum of 7 days from the date that the appeal was received by your local authority. Once you have been notified of the result of your appeal, your FHIS outcome will be published online.
You can challenge the local authority's decision by judicial review. Even if you decide to do this, your FHIS outcome will still be published online. If you think that your local authority has not followed processes properly, you can use the council’s complaints procedure (including taking the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman where appropriate). You should be able to find details of how to complain on your local authority’s website.
If you’ve been given an “Improvement Required” rating and you believe it’s not fair or doesn’t reflect the hygiene standards at the time of the inspection, you can use your Right to Reply.
This lets you explain what you’ve done since the inspection to fix any issues, or give context about what was happening at the time. It is not meant for making complaints or for criticising the scheme or food safety officer.
You should send your comments in writing to the food safety officer that undertook the inspection of your premises – you will be given the contact details for the officer when you are notified about your FHIS outcome. You can do this by completing a standard form or you can send a letter or an email to your food safety officer.
There is no deadline for this so you can submit your ‘Right to Reply’ at any time up until your next inspection when you will get a new FHIS outcome.
Your local authority may edit your comments in order to remove any offensive, defamatory, clearly inaccurate or irrelevant remarks. Other than that, what you say in your ‘Right to Reply’ will then be published online together with your FHIS outcome.
The ‘Right to Reply’ will remain on the website until you are given a new FHIS outcome.
