Improvement Notice

Hygiene improvement notices are provided for by regulation 6 of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013. An authorised officer of an enforcement authority — typically an environmental health officer employed by the local authority — can serve one where they have reasonable grounds for believing that a food business operator is failing to comply with the hygiene regulations. The notice itself has to do more than simply assert non-compliance: it must state the officer's grounds for that belief, specify the matters which constitute the failure to comply, and specify the measures the officer considers necessary to secure compliance.

The notice must also give the operator a defined window to act: it has to require the food business operator to take those measures, or equivalent measures, within such period as may be specified in the notice, and that period cannot be less than 14 days. This gives the business a statutory minimum breathing space to fix the problem rather than facing immediate enforcement. The notice's teeth come from regulation 6(2): any person who fails to comply with a hygiene improvement notice commits a criminal offence, distinguishing it from the separate (and non-scored) Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, which only publicises inspection outcomes rather than compelling action.