What options are available for businesses
As a business you can:
- make an appeal
- have a ‘right to reply’
- request a re-rating inspection when improvements have been made
Make an appeal
If you think that the rating is wrong or unfair, in other words it does not reflect the hygiene standards at the time of inspection, you can appeal.
You have 21 days to do so once you have been notified of your rating
Before making an appeal, you are encouraged to contact the officer first to understand why the rating was given. If you still think that the rating is unfair or wrong, you can submit an appeal.
Right to reply
The right to reply allows you to tell customers how your business has improved its hygiene standards or if there were unusual circumstances at the time of inspection. This response will be published online at rating.food.gov.uk, alongside the rating.
Request a revisit
You will not get another rating between the normal planned inspection intervals unless you make a request for a revisit and there is no limit to the number of requests you can make.
The charge for this service is £234
Once you have submitted a request a revisit form and it has been accepted by the officer, you will be provided with the details to make the payment.
If we consider that you have provided sufficient evidence about any improvements, an officer will make an unannounced inspection. This will be carried out within three months of the receipt of your request and payment of the fee.
The period will only start once the fee has been received. The reason we allow up to three months before we visit is because we need to be certain that compliance is being maintained. There are exceptions and we could return much earlier if the required improvement was only structural, for example repairs to the floor covering.
When we complete the revisit inspection we will give you a ‘new’ food hygiene rating based on the level of compliance at that time. You should be aware that your rating could go up, down or remain the same. The revisit inspection will check the level of overall compliance, not just the items that were listed in your inspection report.