Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department holds data on the number of (a) establishments that received food hygiene inspections in 2023 and (b) ratings that were issued by each category defined by the Food Standards Agency.

The Food Standards Agency does not hold data on the number of establishments receiving a food hygiene inspection in 2023. However, the attached tables show the number of food hygiene interventions carried out by local authorities in each country, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, for the periods 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 and 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023. This includes interventions other than inspections and audits, such as visits to monitor and verify the standards of food hygiene, visits to take samples, visits to give advice, or the assessment of documents provided by the food business. It also includes the number of food hygiene inspections and audits carried out by local authorities in each country, for the period 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023.

Local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland issued 199,262 food hygiene ratings from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023. The attached tables show the data for each country by each category of food establishment, and the aggregate totals for the three countries. A food establishment may have been subject to more than one intervention, or may have received more than one food hygiene rating during 2023.