Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS)

The FHRS is operated in partnership with local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The scheme provides information about the hygiene standards of food businesses at the time of local authority inspections to the public. Businesses supplying food directly to consumers, such as restaurants, takeaways, supermarkets, and hospitals are included in the scheme. In Wales, business-to-business operations,  such as manufacturers, are also included.

As FHRS is underpinned by local authority inspection work, impacts to inspections during the pandemic (as discussed in the Local authority delivery section of this
report) have impacted on the FHRS. Impacts include ratings staying in place longer and the inspection date of ratings being older. There has also been an increase in the
number of businesses ‘awaiting inspection’ as the number of new business registrations increased. In May 2021, the FSA Board agreed a Local Authority Recovery Plan. A key objective of the plan is to enable more routine operation of the FHRS and to safeguard the credibility of the scheme. As of 31 March 2022, there were 464,574 food
hygiene ratings published at www.food.gov.uk/ratings. 

Figure 7: % Food businesses with a food hygiene rating achieving rating of 3 or better

The England chart shows the percentage distribution of FHRS ratings 3 or better as at 31 March 2022. From 2017/18 to 2021/22 there has been a consistent shift in businesses achieving higher ratings. The Northern Ireland chart shows the percentage distribution of overall FHRS ratings as at 31 March 2022. From 2017/18 to 2021/22 businesses have achieved consistent ratings with slightly higher ratings in the past two years. The Wales chart shows the percentage distribution of overall FHRS ratings as at 31 March 2022. From 2017/18 to 2021/22 there has been a consistent shift in businesses achieving higher ratings.

Figure 8: % Food businesses with a food hygiene rating achieving rating of 2 or below

The England chart shows the percentage distribution of FHRS ratings 2 or below as at 31 March 2022. From 2017/18 to 2021/22 there has been a steady decrease, from 5.4% in 2017/18 Q4 to 3.2% in 2021/22 Q4. Similarly, the Northern Ireland chart shows a steady decrease, from 1.1% in 2017/18 Q4 to 0.8% in 2021/22 Q4. Similarly, the Wales chart shows a steady decrease, from 4.7% in 2017/18 Q4 to 2.9% in 2021/22 Q4.

Food hygiene ratings issued

During 2021/22 the number of businesses rated was returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Figure 9: Number of Establishments rated – England, Wales and Northern Ireland

159,881 establishments rated during 2021/22, a 179% increase on 2020/21.

The recovery is being seen in all three countries, but the pace of recovery differs between each. This reflects the different impacts of the pandemic on the resources of food teams in each nation, their ability to deliver interventions in food establishments and administer the rating scheme, and the different rules and restrictions in place (for example, when businesses could open to customers as restrictions started to be eased).

Businesses published as 'awaiting inspection'

During the pandemic there was a sharp increase in the number of businesses published as ‘awaiting inspection’ – new businesses awaiting their first inspection.
This number has been falling as the recovery plan is implemented and interventions carried out (see Fig. 7 below). In addition to those businesses now rated, a significant number of new businesses were found to have ceased, or never commenced, trading.

Figure 10: Number of businesses published as 'awaiting inspection' 

Back to the Main report: Activities and Performances 2021/22.