Accessibility statement for food.gov.uk

This website is run by the Food Standards Agency. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet  has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of any issues in the non-accessible content section of this statement.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille: 

• Email: fsa.communications@food.gov.uk 
• Phone our Helpline: 0330 332 7149 (open 9am until 5pm, Monday to Friday) 
• By post: 

Headquarters

Floors 6 and 7, Clive House
70 Petty France
London SW1H 9EX

York

Foss House, 
Kings Pool 
1-2 Peasholme Green,
York YO1 7PR

Wales

Food Standards Agency in Wales
4th Floor, Welsh Government Building
Cathays Park
Cardiff CF10 3NQ

Northern Ireland

10c Clarendon Road,
Belfast BT1 3BG

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

• Email: fsa.communications@food.gov.uk 
• Phone our Helpline: 0330 332 7149 (open 9am until 5pm, Monday to Friday) 

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

If you are in Northern Ireland and are not happy with how we respond to your complaint you can contact the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland who are responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland. 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Food Standards Agency is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons. 

PDFs and other non-HTML documents

Some of our PDF documents are not fully accessible, including but not limited to: 

• Our Manual for Official Controls (MOC) documents are not fully accessible. Some of the tables have an irregular structure, no header rows, missing alternative text and inaccessible flow charts. We plan to upload an accessible HTML version of the MOC by October 2024 and aim to have accessible PDF versions available before this date. 

• Our Sanitary Survey reports for Northern Ireland published on the Shellfish Production Area Assessments page. These PDFs are not accessible and they have been added to our inaccessible content backlog to be fixed as soon as possible. We are also working on creating an accessible template for these publications to ensure any future updates are accessible by default. 

• The Cost data slides and Charges for controls in meat premises PDF documents are not accessible. They have been added to our inaccessible content backlog to be fixed as soon as possible. We are also working on creating an accessible template for these publications to ensure future updates are accessible. 

• The resources uploaded on our Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and Environment Programme page under the PATH-SAFE webinar heading are not accessible. They have been created by a third party and we do not have access to the original versions to make them accessible. Please get in touch if you do require an accessible alternative. The recordings do not have transcripts or captions but summaries can be provided on request. 

Some of our Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have forms published as Word documents. We are currently in the process of converting some of these forms into interactive accessible PDF forms where we can. 

Due to time and resource pressures, we sometimes must upload PDF documents that are not fully WCAG compliant when they are first published. Wherever possible, we will upload an accessible HTML copy of the document and we will work to create an accessible PDF document as soon as possible. 

Disproportionate burden

We have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 8 February 2024.

This website was last tested on 21 April 2021. The test was carried out by Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC)

We selected the sample of pages to test based on common user journeys that also include a wide variety of different content types. This includes accessing guidance, reporting a food problem and accessing food alerts.