In its annual report, published last week, the regulator highlighted the importance of businesses sharing this data to help local authorities make judgments about the controls placed on businesses.
“That will mean local authority officers can make more informed judgments about the nature, frequency and intensity of official controls for that business,” she said.
Modernisation agenda
She also said that the modernisation agenda of the organisation was “never more important” with the UK leaving the EU in less than a year.
Hancock also stressed the importance of the FSA programme to change food regulation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. She said the programme would ensure local authorities had more information about the food businesses in their area and that the FSA would, for the first time, be able to develop a unified view of food business and local authority performance, across the three countries.
Hancock said: “The greater the transparency is about ongoing business performance, and the more information and insight the food industry shares with us, the better we will all protect the public and build confidence in food."
In his statement, chief executive Jason Feeney highlighted the ongoing success of the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS).
Better public health protection
He said: “More than 95% of food businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland now have a ‘generally satisfactory’ rating or higher (three or above) and 68% have a hygiene rating of five ('very good'). We believe mandatory display of FHRS drives up food safety compliance and therefore provides better public health protection.”
Currently, England does not have mandatory regulations to display food ratings while Wales and Northern Ireland does.
The FSA annual report and accounts for 2017-18 covers its performance and activities in 2017-18 across England, Wales and Northern Ireland at a net cost of £93.2m.