The UK venues that haven’t been inspected in five years

Most food hygiene ratings rest on a fairly recent inspection, but not all of them. Around 1,055 venues across the UK carry a rating from a visit more than five years ago, which works out at roughly one in two hundred rated businesses. That is rare, and it is not the scandal it might first look like. Here is what a five-year-old rating actually means.

How many, and how rare

Measured against our latest snapshot, 1,055 venues were last inspected before late August 2021. Set that against the roughly 209,000 venues carrying a rating and it comes to about half of one per cent. The overwhelming majority of ratings are backed by a more recent visit, so a genuinely old inspection is the exception rather than the rule. Small as the group is, it is worth understanding, because a rating and the date behind it are two different things.

Why a rating can be five years old

Inspection is risk-based, not calendar-based. Local authorities decide how often to visit each premises according to the risk it carries, so a business handling raw meat at volume is seen far more often than a shop selling sealed, pre-packaged goods. A low-risk premises with a clean history can therefore go a long time between visits without anything being wrong. Until an inspector returns, the last result stays on the record, which is how a rating from 2020 or earlier can still be the current one.

Is an old rating a problem?

Not in itself, but it is a limitation worth naming. An old rating is not inaccurate, it is simply less current: it describes the premises as it was at the last visit, which may be a while ago. Standards can improve or slip in five years, and a stale rating cannot capture either. So the date is not a reason to avoid a place on its own, but it is a reason to weigh the rating a little more loosely than a fresh one, and to lean on what you can see for yourself.

What we left out, and why

This count deliberately excludes a handful of records carrying placeholder dates from before the rating schemes existed, some reading as far back as the year 2000, which are data artefacts rather than real inspections. The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme began around 2010 and Scotland’s scheme a few years earlier, so we set a floor at 2006 and counted only inspections on or after it. That keeps the figure honest: 1,055 is the number of genuinely old inspections, not a total inflated by glitches.

Where these figures come from

The count is computed from the Food Standards Agency’s published open data, taken as a snapshot on 26 August 2026 and released under the Open Government Licence. The five-year mark is measured from that snapshot date. We report the official inspection record and calculate from it directly, placeholders removed. Verified, not reviewed.

FAQ

How many UK venues haven’t been inspected in over five years?

Around 1,055, roughly one in two hundred rated businesses, based on our August 2026 snapshot.

Does an old inspection date mean a place is unsafe?

No. It means the rating is less current, not that it is wrong. Risk-based scheduling means low-risk premises are visited less often.

Will these venues be re-inspected?

Yes, in time. The rating stays in place until the next inspection, whenever the local authority schedules it.

Why exclude dates before 2006?

Some records carry placeholder dates from before the rating schemes existed. Those are data artefacts, not real inspections, so we leave them out to keep the count accurate.

Hero image: Igor Sporynin via Unsplash.