In the United Kingdom the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 came into force on 1 January 2005. Apart from certain exemptions (relating to "public security, privacy of the individual and the like) the general principle is to give citizens the right to access information held by public authorities.

The Food and Trading Standards Team routinely inspect all food businesses for compliance with nationally agreed hygiene and food safety standards. These inspections can be in a range of intervals between 6 months and 3 years. Each inspection results in a "risk -rating" for every registered (or known) food business. It is intended to publish these risk- ratings, together with an explanation of what they mean, on an incremental, rolling  basis.

It is hoped that such knowledge will allow food buyers and consumers to make informed choices with a view to raising the good standards of food safety experienced in the majority of food businesses to even higher standards.

Database of Food Safety Risk Ratings