Election Over, Time to Tackle Food Safety Crisis, Says Report

Now the election is over, it’s time to get back down to Shared Data Unit business
Today we are sharing our latest story pack about the backlog of food hygiene inspections in the UK.
And we have found that a crisis in food safety is exposing consumers to an increased risk of food poisoning and other serious health issues.
Our analysis shows one in every five restaurants and takeaways in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had not been inspected by food inspectors for more than two years.
In Scotland, 40% of businesses had not been inspected for more than two years.
Environmental health teams say a recruitment crisis and a backlog of inspections from the pandemic are behind the trend.
The public services union, Unison, said: “This is a serious public health issue.”
“Inspections are now so delayed it’s perfectly possible for food businesses with shoddy hygiene practices to operate with little fear of ever being caught.”
Today we are sharing with you a full story pack complete with national and regional analysis, expert quotes from the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, Unison and Unchecked UK. You can use anything in the story pack in pulling your story together except the main image.
And we are also sharing this spreadsheet which shows how many food outlets in your area have not been inspected for more than two years.
Please note: the story pack contains rights of responses from Defra and the Scottish Government – as well as responses from some of the council areas with the highest proportion of businesses not inspected for more than two years.
These are:
North East Lincs
Walsall Council 
Liverpool City Council   
Southampton Council   
Pembrokeshire Council 
East Lindsey District Council
Portsmouth City Council
Rochford District Council
Mole Valley
As always please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any queries via this email: shared.dataunit@bbc.co.uk
Kind regards
The SDU team

By Paul Lynch – Local Democracy Reporter