What we publish

The Freedom of Information Act requires us to inform members of the public how they can find information that is routinely made available. This Publication scheme specifies the categories of information we routinely publish and sets out how to access that information. In accordance with the Welsh Language Act 1993, and our commitment to treating the languages of Welsh and English equal, this is also available in Welsh.

If the information you want is not available, you can make a request for it under the Freedom of Information Act.

Who we are and what we do

• Our contact details
• Roles and responsibilities - who we are, our Board
• Our Board members
• Senior Leadership team

Legislation relevant to our functions

• Regulatory approach

Food law enforcement and regulation

• Report an issue with poor hygiene
• Report an issue with labelling
• Food law
• Local authorities

Official Statistics

We produce the following reports in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.  

• Food and You – the main report is published every two years (odd years only) in April with the regional reports coming out in June/July..

• FSA biannual public attitudes tracker - published in February and August each year.
• Local Authority Food Law Enforcement Returns - published every November.
• National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) for Northern Ireland - published every two years in January/February (odd years only).

None of our outputs are designated as National Statistics publications.

Our statement of compliance gives details of our policies on confidentiality, release practices, revisions and complaints.  They make sure that our Official Statistics follow the UK Statistics Authority's Code of Practice for Statistics.  

What we spend how we spend it

• Government procurement card transactions (data.food.gov)

• Expenses, gifts and hospitality (data.food.gov)

• Working for FSA

• Procurement
• Contracts and tenders
• Expenditure over 25k

Our priorities

• Science strategy
• Research and survey programmes
• Annual reports and accounts, reports on incidents
• Meat and meat hygiene licensing, inspection and reporting regimes
• Food Hygiene Rating Scheme
• Impact assessments 
• Service standards

How we make decisions

• Consultations
• Minutes of senior-level meetings, including Board meetings
• Reports and papers provided for consideration by the Board

Policies and procedures

• Framework agreement
• Food and Feed Law Codes of Practice
• Regulatory approach
• Guidance for local authorities
• Key regulations 
• Responding to food incidents
• Freedom of information (data.food.gov)
• Complaints
• Equality and diversity
• Procedures for recruiting and employing staff

Services we offer

• Regulatory responsibilities
• Contact services
• Food Hygiene Rating open data - Application Programming Interface (API) 
• Media releases
• Important news updates - product recalls, allergen alerts

Hard copies

Requests for hard copies of any of the above information should be made in writing, referring to this publication page - please contact us for more information.

There is usually no charge for the information we publish, unless the request is for a priced publication or data set. We may, however, be required to charge if, for example, a large amount of photocopying is necessary or to cover the cost of postage for a large quantity of paperwork.