On 1 April 2007, the Safety and Food team of Swindon Borough Council introduced a ‘Scores on Doors’ scheme for food premises.
The scheme will allow members of the public to see the results of the last food hygiene inspection by viewing the score displayed as a certificate on the premises, or on the Swindon Borough Council website, enabling consumers to make informed choices about where they buy or eat food.
We have used be using a star system to represent the standard of hygiene at food outlets.
Currently, under the Freedom of Information Act, people have the right to request information on inspections of all food premises and access to any reports that were sent. All reports will eventually be available on line.
Currently, each time premises are inspected, the officer produces risk scores for the standard of hygiene observed during the visit. This score is used to determine how often a business is inspected and is calculated using a national system as required by the Food Standards Agency.
Based on the inspection risk score, each food premises can gain up to a maximum of five ‘stars’ which will be recorded on a certificate. The certificate will be sent to the business and its display will be voluntary.
If displayed, the certificate must be visible from outside the front of the premises (affixed to the inside of the front door or window). This will allow the public to view the certificate before deciding to enter.
The score will also be posted on this website (please see: Star Ratings).
Each establishment will be scored on the following three points:
The following table shows how these scores translate to the star ratings.
| Stars | Points | Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 0 - 5 | Excellent hygiene conditions found, very high standards of compliance with food legislation |
| 4 | 10-15 | Very Good |
| 3 | 20-25 | Good |
| 2 | 30-35 | Satisfactory |
| 1 | 40-45 | Poor hygiene conditions found. Some non-compliance with food legislation. Confidence in management is low. More effort required to prevent a fall in standards |
| 0 | 50+ | Unacceptable. Almost total non-compliance with statutory obligations. Structure very poor. Little or no confidence in management. Follow-up action will be taken. |
In circumstances where a food outlet fails to gain any stars, a certificate will be issued with no stars.
All certificates issued will remain the property of Swindon Borough Council and can be removed at any time. In exceptional circumstances a certificate could be withdrawn, for example where an officer visits to investigate a complaint and finds that standards have fallen dramatically, thus requiring a re-inspection.
In addition to receiving a certificate, each business receives a full food hygiene report, detailing what needs to be done to comply with the law and recommended good practices to help improve the business even further. If the work is done and the business continues to maintain the hygiene standards, the score at the next inspection could improve, thereby gaining a better star rating.
Most businesses will be subject to the scheme but they will only be visited when their inspection is due.
Accessibility Guideline Notes
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