Free tool
Food Safety Fine Estimator
What would a food hygiene prosecution actually cost your business? Answer five questions the way the court would and see the Sentencing Council starting point and range for your turnover, with the reasoning, and what the same case looks like with a documented food safety system.
- The real guideline tables, all four turnover bands
- Culpability and harm in plain English, mapped to the court’s own wording
- The guilty-plea reduction and the due diligence contrast
- No sign up to see your estimate
England and Wales, organisations only. Takes about a minute. Not legal advice.
Why the number is so hard to find
Since March 2015 there has been no cap on food hygiene fines in either court, so “up to £20,000” and “unlimited” are both quoted everywhere and neither tells you what a case like yours would cost. What the court actually does is follow a guideline table: your turnover band picks the table, culpability and harm pick the cell, and the cell gives a starting point and a range.
The lever a business controls is culpability. The difference between “systems were in place but not followed” and “no recognised system” is one row in the table, and for an independent restaurant that row is the difference between a £4,000 and a £12,000 starting point on the same inspection. A system that was being followed is a full defence under section 21 of the Food Safety Act 1990.