Food hygiene rating scheme

Right to Reply

If you disagree with the rating given to your business the owner or manager of the business has a ‘right to reply’. This is different from an appeal.

The owner or manager can fill in the right to reply form and send in by email to food@wakefield.gov.uk or by post, to tell them how the business has improved its hygiene or to say if there were unusual circumstances at the time of the inspection. A business’s right to reply once agreed by the Service, will be published online by the local authority with the business’s hygiene rating.

The owner or manager of the business should talk to the Council Officer that inspected the business about why the rating was given.

Appeals

If the business owner or manager still thinks that the rating is unfair or wrong, they can appeal in writing. This means they can fill in the appeal form providing the reasoning for why they feel the rating scored was unfair/wrong and send it to the Council by post, or email food@wakefield.gov.uk within 21 days (this includes weekends and public holidays) of being given that rating. Where a business appeals after this date, this will not be considered.

A business owner or manager can ask for a revisit if the improvements to hygiene that the local authority food safety officer told the business about at the last inspection have been made. 

Rescore visits

The owner or manager of a food business can request for another inspection to be carried out before the date of the next planned inspection to improve a food hygiene rating.

The re-visit mechanism applies in cases where FBO’s with ratings of ‘0’ to ‘4’ have made the necessary improvements to address non-compliances identified during a planned intervention.

To ask for another inspection, the food business must fill in the revisit request form and email it to food@wakefield.gov.uk or post it. They must explain how they have improved under the relevant three elements; structure, hygiene and confidence in management. If there is insufficient evidence provided that improvements have been made the Council can refuse to undertake a re-visit on that basis but must explain why they are refusing the request.

There is a cost to the business for rescore visits under the Food Hygiene Rating scheme,  please contact food@wakefield.gov.uk for the current fee. Revisit requests will not be accepted where no fee has been paid first.

There is no time limit within which a request for a re-visit can be made after the planned intervention. Once a revisit request has been accepted, the visit will take place within a 3-month period.

All re-visits will be unannounced.

During the re-visit the Officer will check that the required improvements have been made but may also assess the level of compliance that is found overall. This means that the food hygiene rating could go up, down or remain the same as deemed appropriate.

Early Display of Ratings

Food businesses which receive an improved score (new score is 1-4) in their food hygiene rating following either an inspection or revisit may forfeit the appeal period by requesting in writing for the rating to be displayed earlier. A form will be left by the Officer where this is appropriate or can be requested at food@wakefield.gov.uk. This allows the Service to display the new rating of 1-4 sooner than the 28-day period of appeal and notification periods. All 5 rated businesses are displayed immediately as they are not subject to appeal.