Remote assessments for FHRS requested re-inspections in England: Executive summary

The Food Standard Agency's (FSA) Covid-19 Local Authority (LA) Recovery Plan published in July 2021 enabled LAs to carry out a Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) requested reinspection remotely if the non-compliance related to either structural non-compliances (i.e.relating to the physical building, food storage or preparation areas etc.) or documentation (i.e.business management records on food safety: internal checks, procedures, staff training etc.). This is known as a remote assessment. ICF were commissioned by the FSA to evaluate the use of remote assessments for FHRS requested re-inspections in England (referred to as 'hygiene re-ratings' in this report). The study looked to understand experiences of remote assessment, how it was being used, and its benefits and limitations among LAs and food business operators (FBOs). It also looked at barriers and facilitators to remote assessment by LAs. The study comprised of: a review of documentation relating to the use of remote assessment for hygiene re-ratings – this included FSA documentation, and information sent by two LAs on their remote assessment approaches; exploratory interviews with FSA representatives with relevant knowledge on FHRS; 20 interviews with LAs were interviewed (14 that had never used remote assessment for a hygiene re-rating, four that had previously used remote assessment, and two that were still using it at the time of interview); and, 10 interviews with FBOs of varying sizes (eight with no experience of receiving a remote assessment for a food hygiene re-rating, and two that had received a remote assessment). Key findings Defining a remote assessment The concept of remote assessment was not explicitly defined by the FSA. Instead, FSA guidance provided examples of what a remote assessment could involve and sets out parameters for its use. LA awareness of the FSA guidance was high, but they were uncertain about what constitutes a remote assessment and whether their approaches fell into this category. LAs did not tend to have internal documentation on the definition or implementation of remote assessment. As such, for the purposes of this study, only LAs that were carrying out re-ratings entirely remotely at the time of interviewing (or had done so in the past) were considered as having used remote assessment.