The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced it is making changes to how the FHRS system displays establishments which are included in the scheme but have not previously been published when new ratings of 0-4 are uploaded.

Currently, where there is no record for the business is already published and local authorities upload a rating of 0 – 4, no information will be published on the FHRS website for 3 – 5 weeks until the notification and appeal period have elapsed. This may happen where registration and inspection takes place simultaneously therefore the local authority does not upload and publish the establishment as awaiting inspection on the website before the rating is uploaded.

Similarly, if an appeal is lodged for a business for which no record is already published, no record will be shown until the appeal is determined. If a record is being published when the appeal is lodged, the website will show the record as ‘awaiting publication’.

The new changes are:

• When a rating of 0 – 4 is uploaded and no record for the business is already published, the website will show the business as ‘awaiting inspection’ with the message ‘Recently inspected – new rating to be published soon’ until the new rating is published.
• When a rating of 0 – 4 is uploaded and no record for the business is already published, and an appeal is lodged, the website will show the business as ‘awaiting publication’ until the appeal is determined and the rating published.

There are no actions or changes required for local authority systems or how data is uploaded. The above changes will automatically be dealt with by the FHRS IT system. The FHRS IT guidance will be updated to reflect the above changes in the near future.

If you have questions, contact HygieneRatings@food.gov.uk