Food Hygiene Rating Scheme - Display of ratings at food business premises in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

<p>"The overall objectives of this piece of work were as follows ascertain how many food businesses that have been given a food hygiene rating display this at their premises, and where this was displayed examine reasons for, and impact of, display/non-display and find out what would encourage display determine awareness and use of safeguards and attitudes towards the statutory scheme. the proportion of businesses displaying their rating by rating (0 to 5), by type of business and by region whether display rates have changed over time compared with audits conducted in 2011/12 and 2013 in Wales and in 2011/12, 2013 and 2014 in England and Northern Ireland what could be learned from the findings in Wales relating to the requirement for compulsory display of ratings. A covert audit of businesses was first carried out to see whether businesses were displaying their rating sticker (or certificate in England and Northern Ireland) making it clearly visible from the outside (only if the sticker were not visible on the outside of the premises did the auditor enter the premises to look for evidence) displaying alternative formats to the sticker (certificate) showing a rating Representative samples of premises were drawn in England, Northern Ireland and Wales from the FHRS database. The total number of businesses audited is as follows. England - 429 Northern Ireland - 445 Wales – 430 Following the audit, a telephone survey was conducted to find out whether businesses are aware of the scheme what would encourage them to display their rating if they are not doing so already the reasons for and the impact on business of displaying their rating what improvements have been made to increase their rating if they received a rating less than 5 awareness and use of safeguard measures (right to appeal, right to a revisit for re-rating following improvements, and right to reply) attitudes towards compulsory display The total number of businesses interviewed per country is as follows: England - 506 (of which 240 had been audited) Northern Ireland - 510 (of which 244 had been audited) Wales - 500 (of which 233 had been audited)"</p>