Why it helps to understand the system first

When you open a café, restaurant or cloud kitchen in England, you will deal with several public bodies. Some are national. Some belong to your local council. Some are separate from both. Each one looks after a different part of your business: the food, the building, fire safety, the safety of your staff, your taxes, your company records and the personal information you hold about customers and staff.

You do not need to learn every law. You need to know which body deals with which subject, so that you can ask the right people the right question at the right time. That is a sure and secure path, and it saves a great deal of time.

The core chapters of this book (Chapters 1 to 20) explain the practical work of running a food business. They do not name laws or bodies, because they are written for readers in many countries. This part of the book, Part Seven, fills in the rules for England. Read the two together.

The layers of rules

It helps to think of the rules as layers. A small food business in England is affected by all of them at once.

Layer 1: law for the whole United Kingdom

The United Kingdom (UK) is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Some laws apply across the whole UK, or across most of it. Examples that matter to you are company law (Companies House registers companies for the whole UK), most tax law (HM Revenue and Customs, called HMRC, collects tax across the UK) and the Food Safety Act 1990, which applies in England, Wales and Scotland (Northern Ireland has its own food safety law).

Some of the food law that applies in England came originally from the European Union. When the UK left the European Union, this law was kept. Since 1 January 2024 it has been called assimilated law. Before that it was called “retained EU law”. You will see both names in older guidance. An important example is the main food hygiene regulation, Regulation (EC) 852/2004, which is still the basis of the hygiene rules for food businesses.

Layer 2: rules for England only

Some matters are decided separately for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. For example, the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 set out how food hygiene law is enforced in England, including the legal temperature limits for keeping food. The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 apply in England only. Planning law and business rates are also run differently in each part of the UK.

This is why Part Seven is written for England only (see section E-1.5).

Layer 3: national bodies that write guidance

Several national bodies write guidance that explains the law in practical terms. The most important for you is the Food Standards Agency (FSA). It is responsible for food safety and food hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is a government department, but not one led by a minister. The FSA writes guidance for food businesses on hygiene, allergens and cooking temperatures. It also publishes the Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) packs, which many small caterers use to plan and record their food safety. Chapter E-3 explains these.

Layer 4: your local council

Your local council is the body you will deal with most often. In England there are two main kinds of local council area:

• Two-tier areas, where a county council and a smaller district, borough or city council share the work.
• Single-tier areas, where one council does everything. These include unitary authorities, London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs.

Different services are run by different departments. The table shows the ones a food business usually meets. In a two-tier area, ask your district or borough council first; it will tell you if a subject belongs to the county council.

Council department or role	What it does for a food business	Where this book covers it
Food safety team (environmental health)	Registers your food business and inspects it. Officers are called food safety officers or environmental health officers. They usually arrive without making an appointment.	Chapter E-3; Chapter 12
Licensing authority	Issues premises licences (for selling alcohol, for hot food or drink between 11 pm and 5 am, and for some entertainment), and other local licences such as pavement and street trading licences.	Chapter E-4
Local planning authority	Decides planning permission. A change in how a building is used is one of the main reasons permission is needed.	Chapters E-4 and E-7
Building control	Checks that building work meets the building regulations. You can use the council’s building control department or a private registered building control approver.	Chapter E-4
Business rates	Sends the bill for business rates, normally in February or March each year. The value used to work out the bill (the rateable value) is set by a national body, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).	Chapter E-5
Health and safety	For catering premises, the council (not HSE) normally enforces health and safety law (see below).	Chapters E-4 and E-6

You may also hear about Trading Standards. Trading Standards offices give business advice about trading legally and deal with complaints from the public. You can find your local office through a search page on gov.uk, using your postcode.

Layer 5: fire and rescue authorities

Fire safety in workplaces is checked by your local fire and rescue authority, not by the council. The law places the duty on the responsible person. This means the employer, the owner, the landlord, the occupier, or anyone else who has control of the premises. In a small café you are almost certainly a responsible person, and if you share a building, the responsible people must work together.

The responsible person must carry out a fire risk assessment, which is a careful look at what could start a fire, who could be harmed and what you do to prevent it and get people out safely. You must review it regularly and keep a written record of it. You must also tell staff about the risks, put fire safety measures in place and look after them, plan for an emergency, and train your staff. Fire and rescue authorities inspect premises and can issue fire safety notices. Not following the rules can lead to a fine or, in serious cases, prison. Chapter E-4 explains the practical steps.

Layer 6: health and safety at work, shared between HSE and councils

Health and safety law protects your staff and your customers. It is enforced by two kinds of body. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the national regulator. Local councils also enforce health and safety law, and the work is divided between them by type of business. Councils are responsible for hotel and catering premises, shops, offices and some other kinds of business; HSE covers other sectors. More than 380 local authorities share this work with HSE.

So for a restaurant, café or cloud kitchen, the inspector who looks at health and safety will normally come from your council. HSE still writes much of the guidance, including a section of its website for catering and hospitality. It names the main risks in kitchens as slips and trips, knives, lifting and carrying (called manual handling) and skin disease. Chapter E-4 covers health and safety basics, and Chapter E-6 covers your other duties to staff.

Layer 7: national bodies you register with

Finally, there are national bodies that you register with or pay, rather than bodies that inspect your premises:

• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for Income Tax, Corporation Tax, VAT and payroll (Chapters E-2, E-5 and E-6).
• Companies House, if you form a limited company or a limited liability partnership (Chapter E-2).
• The Information Commission (still known as the ICO), the data protection regulator, for the data protection fee (section E-1.4).

How Part Seven is organised

Part Seven has twelve chapters. Each one sits behind one or more of the core chapters. The core tells you how to do something well; Part Seven tells you what the law in England requires, which body to deal with, and what it costs.

Chapter	What it covers	Read it with
E-1 How the rules work in England	The bodies, the layers of rules, duties for every business	Chapter 1
E-2 Your business structure	Sole trader, partnership, limited company, LLP; registering; business names	Chapters 2 and 4
E-3 Registering your food business	Food business registration, hygiene law, temperatures, allergens, hygiene ratings	Chapters 3, 9 and 12
E-4 Other licences and permissions	Alcohol, late-night food, music, planning, pavement seating, building regulations, fire safety, gas and electrical safety, health and safety, waste	Chapters 5, 8, 10 and 15
E-5 VAT and other taxes	VAT on food and drink, Income Tax, Corporation Tax, business rates	Chapters 7, 16 and 17
E-6 Employing staff	Minimum wage, right to work, contracts, payroll, pensions, tips, health and safety	Chapter 13
E-7 Premises and leases	Business leases, energy ratings, asbestos, running a food business from home	Chapter 5
E-8 Typical costs in England	Real cost levels to compare with your own quotes	Chapters 16 and 17
E-9 Funding	Start-up loans, guarantee schemes, grants, equipment finance and other sources of money in England	Chapter 16
E-10 Delivery apps and payments	Working with delivery apps, card payments, pricing and reviews	Chapters 7 and 15
E-11 Terms and money	A glossary of the English terms used in Part Seven	Any chapter
E-12 The England master checklist and timeline	Every step in order, with timings	Chapter 19

How to use Part Seven with the core chapters

1. Read the core first. Work through a core chapter as you plan. Where it says the rules are country-specific, it sends you to a chapter in Part Seven.
2. Then read the matching Part Seven chapter. Note each legal step you must take, and who you must contact.
3. Put each step into your plan. Many steps take weeks (for example, food business registration must be done at least 28 days before you start trading, and some licence applications need a public notice for 28 days). Chapter E-12 brings all the steps together with timings.
4. Check before you act. Every Part Seven chapter ends with a list of official pages. Open them, check the date on the page, and make sure the figures have not changed.

Duties that apply to every business

Some duties do not depend on whether you sell food. They apply to almost every business in England. Three of them affect nearly every small food business, so we explain them here.

The data protection fee

If your business uses personal information, you will usually have to pay a data protection fee every year to the data protection regulator, even if you are a sole trader. Some businesses are exempt. Personal information is information about a person who can be identified, for example a customer’s name and phone number on a booking, an email list, staff records, or pictures from a security camera.

The fee depends on the size of the organisation. When we checked, the fees were:

Tier	Who it is for	Yearly fee
Tier 1 (micro organisations)	Turnover of up to £632,000, or no more than 10 members of staff	£52
Tier 2 (small and medium organisations)	Turnover of up to £36 million, or no more than 250 members of staff	£78
Tier 3 (large organisations)	Larger than Tier 2	£3,763

The fee is £5 less if you pay by direct debit. Most small cafés, restaurants and cloud kitchens will fall in Tier 1.

Some organisations are exempt and do not have to pay. The regulator’s website has a short self-assessment tool, which takes about two minutes, to tell you whether you need to pay. But note one clear rule: a business that uses CCTV (security cameras) to prevent crime must pay the fee, whatever else is true about the business. Many food businesses have a camera over the till or the door, so many will need to pay.

Chapter 15 explains how to build a customer list with people’s agreement.

Employers’ liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance pays the cost if a member of staff is injured or becomes ill because of their work and claims compensation from you. It is compulsory as soon as you become an employer. It is the only kind of business insurance that this chapter can confirm is required by law for every employer.

• The policy must cover you for at least £5 million.
• You can be fined up to £2,500 for every day you are not properly insured.
• You must display the certificate where your staff can see it (for example on a noticeboard at work, or on a website or intranet they can use). You can be fined up to £1,000 if you do not display it, or do not show it to an inspector who asks for it.

There are some exceptions, for example for some businesses that employ only close family members. The wording of the exceptions is detailed, so check the gov.uk page before you decide that you do not need cover.

You will probably want other kinds of insurance as well, such as cover for your building and equipment, for stock, for injury to customers and for interruption to your business. A landlord, a lender or a council licence may ask you to show that you hold some of these. Speak to an insurance broker and read Chapter 16, which includes insurance in your start-up costs.

Accessibility and the Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from unfair treatment. It affects you as an employer and as a business that serves the public. This section gives only an outline of one duty that every food business needs to understand: the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.

Section 20 of the Act says that where a disabled person would be at a substantial disadvantage compared with people who are not disabled, you must take reasonable steps to avoid that disadvantage. The duty has three parts:

1. Changing the way you do things. The Act calls this a provision, criterion or practice. For example, a booking system that only works online might shut out some customers unless there is another way to book.
2. Dealing with physical features. For example, steps at the entrance, narrow routes between tables, or a toilet that a wheelchair user cannot reach.
3. Providing extra aids or services. The Act calls these auxiliary aids. For example, a large-print menu, or staff who will read the menu aloud.

What is “reasonable” depends on the circumstances, and an adviser can help you judge it. But you cannot charge a disabled customer for any of the cost of making an adjustment.

An updated code of practice for businesses that provide services came into force on 5 August 2026. It says that service providers should check from time to time whether disabled people can use their services, rather than wait until someone asks. A code of practice does not create new legal duties, but a court or tribunal must consider any part of it that is relevant to a case. Thinking about access before you design your premises and menu is the sure and secure path, and it is far cheaper than changing a finished fit-out. Chapter 9 (kitchen and room layout) and Chapter 14 (service) are good places to build this in.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

This part of the book is for England only. Many rules in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are different. A few examples:

• Scotland has its own food body, Food Standards Scotland, instead of the FSA.
• Displaying your food hygiene rating is voluntary in England but required by law in Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Business rates, planning, licensing and parts of employment law differ.
• Local councils are organised differently.

Some rules are the same across the UK, such as registering a company with Companies House. If your business is outside England, check the rules for that part of the UK.

How to keep up to date

Rules change often. In the twelve months before this chapter was checked, for example, Companies House fees rose, new identity checks for company directors became compulsory, the rules for business rates in England changed, and the FSA moved its guidance to a new website. More changes are already planned. These are some habits that will keep you on a sure and secure path:

• Use official pages. The best sources are gov.uk (which includes HMRC, Companies House and the FSA’s business guidance), hse.gov.uk, ico.org.uk, legislation.gov.uk and your own council’s website. Blogs and forums can be useful for ideas, but they are often out of date.
• Check the date. Most gov.uk pages show when they were last updated. If a figure matters to you, confirm it on the page on the day you act.
• Know your council contacts. Keep the names, email addresses and phone numbers of your food safety, licensing, planning and business rates teams (Worksheet E-1.1 helps).
• Use free advice services. In England, the government’s Business Support Service helpline (0800 998 1098, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, except bank holidays) gives free advice on starting and running a business. Your local growth hub can also give free advice. For employment questions, Acas gives free, impartial advice on 0300 123 1100.
• Ask your professionals. At least once a year, ask your accountant and any other adviser: “Has anything changed that affects my business?”
• Review once a year. Chapter 20 suggests an annual review of your business. Add a short check of your registrations, licences, insurance and fees to it.

Changes with dates already announced

These changes were announced when we checked. Dates and details may change, so confirm them nearer the time.

Date	Change	Chapter
6 April 2027 and 6 April 2028	Making Tax Digital for Income Tax extends to more sole traders: those with qualifying income over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028 (it already applies above £50,000 from April 2026)	E-2 and E-5
April 2028	Companies House will accept company accounts only through software	E-2