Food safety reports (2023)
File Ref: F23-671
Date of Response: 12/01/2024
Request
For all your premises which have canteens or cafes, for each canteen/cafe/similar, I would like to be given all Food Safety inspection reports/results, details of subsequent enforcement actions taken, and all supporting documents.
I would be interested in documents relating to all inspections going back for the last 3 years.
Response
Given the nature of the information you have requested, we have processed your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs). More information on the regulations can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.
Firstly, please note that our response only deals with catering venues on the parliamentary estate for which the House of Commons is responsible. Some venues are the responsibility of the House of Lords, which is a separate public authority for the purposes of the EIRs. You may therefore wish to consider forwarding your request to them at: foilords@parliament.uk.
This information is held by the House of Commons.
The most recent inspection of the House of Commons catering facilities took place on 15 November 2023, in the Palace of Westminster (pdf, 1MB) and a cafeteria based at 64 Victoria Street (pdf, 2MB). We hold letters from Westminster City Council resulting from the inspection at these two premises. We also hold the last three years’ worth of inspection letters:
The names and job titles of some staff members working for the House of Commons and Westminster City Council have been redacted from the requested documentation. This information is their personal data and excepted from disclosure in accordance with regulation 13(1) of the EIRs, as disclosure of this information to the public generally, in our view, would not be consistent with data protection principles in Article 5 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). This is an absolute exemption, and the public interest test does not apply.
There have not been any enforcement actions necessary, therefore in accordance with the exception provided by Regulation 12(4)(a) EIRs, we can confirm that no other information relating to your request is held by the House of Commons.
It may help you to know that the Commons catering team serves thousands of customers annually from a range of outlets across the estate. In recent years, all venues have achieved high food hygiene standard ratings and we have taken immediate action to implement the recommendations made and are committed to making rapid progress on improving our performance. This includes introducing enhanced daily cleaning regimes, monitoring and reporting processes, and further staff training.