Background, problem statement, goals & hypothesis - foundry4/fsa-digital-badges GitHub Wiki

Background

Both Wales and Northern Ireland are about to implement mandatory online display for FHRS badges. Northern Ireland has already laid the Order before the Assembly under section 7(3) of the Food Hygiene Rating Act (NI) 2016, however due to Stormont (Northern Irish Assembly) not sitting since January 2017, the order did not receive affirmative resolution.

Now that Stormont is once again working (January 2020), the decision has been taken to take the opportunity to review the Order before resubmitting.

The decision to implement mandatory display in Wales is being driven and backed by Ministers.

Problem statement

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) helps UK consumers choose where to eat out or shop for food by giving them clear information about the businesses’ hygiene standards.

FHRS inspections are conducted by Local Authorities (LAs), who determine their rating (0 - 5). The food businesses’ rating is then physically displayed to the public with a window sticker and the data is made publicly available here: ratings.food.gov.uk. The FHRS is set out in law in Wales and Northern Ireland but display of the rating sticker remains voluntary in England.

You need to conduct a Discovery for this service to determine whether digital badges can be introduced in the UK where consumers are presented with a food businesses’ hygiene rating when they make a food purchase online.

Goals

This discovery goal is to inform the next phase of the Digital Badges project. These will include:

• Design: Recommendations for final suite of badges which are compliant with appropriate requirements and available for businesses to use
• Policy: Findings and recommendations to inform the development of policies regarding mandatory requirements for FHRS on-line display.
• Technology and data: Identification of technical requirements including API integration and how badges are kept current (such as a technical model and high-level requirements in the form of epic user stories)
• Implementation: Identification of service requirements for implementation such as technical support and guidance for businesses implementing digital badges.

Hypothesis

That FHRS digital badges can be implemented if online display is made mandatory in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Given that a set of digital tools are made available to business users.

All registered food businesses should be included in the scheme to reflect the offline experience.