Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the time taken to consult and legislate on the proposed mandatory display of food hygiene ratings in England on consumers.

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is operated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in partnership with local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The FSA has not made a recent assessment. However, evidence from Wales and Northern Ireland demonstrates that mandatory display has improved transparency, which encourages businesses to achieve better levels of compliance with hygiene requirements.

This is therefore a long-standing ambition of the FSA, and the FSA will continue to explore opportunities to progress a statutory scheme with the Department which would sponsor the legislation. In the meantime, the FSA is working hard with its local authority partners to maintain and improve the impact and benefits of this highly successful public health scheme.