Environmental health FOI
Case reference FOI2026/01011
Received 13 May 2026
Published 11 June 2026
Request
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to environmental health in your local authority.
The information requested is as follows:
1. Staffing:
1.1: Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff (including, if possible, agency or contractor staff working in equivalent roles) in your environmental health dept, unit or team in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
1.2. Of the total FTE in your environmental health team, please indicate, for both 2019/20 and 2025/26, the approximate FTE allocated to the following functions:
• Food hygiene/food standards inspections and enforcement
• Pest control
• Infectious disease control (including outbreak investigation, liaison with health protection bodies, etc.)
Note: I appreciate that some staff work across multiple areas. Where possible please apportion their FTE by time spent (e.g. a 1.0 FTE officer spending half their time on food safety and half on housing should be counted as 0.5 in each category). If exact data is not held, please provide the best available estimate used for internal planning, monitoring or statutory reporting - rather than create a new data set.
2. Businesses:
2.1: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) registered in the local authority in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2.2: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) inspected in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2.3: Number of registered food businesses that are eligible for inspection, but which have never been inspected.
2.4: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) that failed inspections in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2.5: Number of enforcement visits to food businesses in the local authority in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2.6: Number of incidents involving pests (vermin, insects etc) at food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2.7: Number of closures of food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26 due to enforcement action through a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice.
2.8: Number of prosecutions of food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
Response
Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please find the answers to your queries below:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to environmental health in your local authority.
The information requested is as follows:
1. Staffing:
1.1: Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff (including, if possible, agency or contractor staff working in equivalent roles) in your environmental health dept, unit or team in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
|
Guildford Borough Council Environmental Health Staffing |
||||
|
|
2020/2021 |
2025/2026 |
||
|
No. Staff |
13 |
15 |
||
|
Staff FTEs |
11 |
12.42 |
||
|
Contractors |
1 |
3 |
||
|
Contractor FTEs |
0.1 |
3.5 |
1.2. Of the total FTE in your environmental health team, please indicate, for both 2019/20 and 2025/26, the approximate FTE allocated to the following functions:
• Food hygiene/food standards inspections and enforcement:
2025/26 = 1.7 FTE
• Pest control:
2025/26 = 0.1 FTE
• Infectious disease control (including outbreak investigation, liaison with health protection bodies, etc.):
2025/26 = 0.2 FTE
Note: I appreciate that some staff work across multiple areas. Where possible please apportion their FTE by time spent (e.g. a 1.0 FTE officer spending half their time on food safety and half on housing should be counted as 0.5 in each category). If exact data is not held, please provide the best available estimate used for internal planning, monitoring or statutory reporting - rather than create a new data set.
2. Businesses:
2.1: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) registered in the local authority in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2019/20 – unable to obtain this information.
2025/26 – 1,139 food businesses.
2.2: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) inspected in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2019/20 – 466.
2025/26 – 548.
2.3: Number of registered food businesses that are eligible for inspection, but which have never been inspected.
72 newly registered businesses are currently awaiting an inspection.
2.4: Number of food businesses (including restaurants and takeaways) that failed inspections in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2019/20 – 14 businesses were non broadly compliant following an inspection.
2025/26 – 11 businesses were non broadly compliant following an inspection.
2.5: Number of enforcement visits to food businesses in the local authority in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
We would need more information. It is not clear what you mean by enforcement visit.
2.6: Number of incidents involving pests (vermin, insects etc) at food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
2019/20 – 12 incidents.
2025/26 – 8 incidents.
2.7: Number of closures of food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26 due to enforcement action through a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice.
None.
2.8: Number of prosecutions of food businesses in 2019/20 and 2025/26.
None.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Guildford Borough Council
Documents
This is Guildford Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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