Food, Drink & Hospitality

Which hospitality rules apply to your business

Hospitality is regulated by what you serve and where guests sleep. Serving food brings registration and hygiene duties; selling alcohol needs premises and personal licences; offering beds brings fire, gas and guest-records duties that scale from a single B&B room to a holiday park. Work out which parts of the industry you operate in below, then follow the matching guidance.

UK-wide
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UK-wide

Related guides in Alcohol Licensing

Regulation in hospitality follows the activity, and most businesses run several at once. A pub that serves meals and lets rooms is a food business, a licensed premises and accommodation all in one — each part brings its own registrations. Food businesses register with the local authority at least 28 days before opening (free). Selling alcohol in England and Wales needs a premises licence and a personal licence holder; Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate licensing regimes. Anywhere guests sleep, fire risk assessment, gas safety and guest-record duties apply.

Where to start

Work out which parts of hospitality you operate in, then follow the matching guidance.

  1. 1

    Serving food

    Follow "Register and run a food business" for registration, hygiene and inspections, and "Food hygiene and HACCP" for your food safety management system.

  2. 2

    Selling alcohol and entertainment

    Follow "Premises licence (alcohol)" and "Personal licence (alcohol)" for the England and Wales licensing regime — Scotland and Northern Ireland licensing differences are covered within those guides and their devolved siblings.

  3. 3

    Running a hotel, B&B or guest house

    Follow "Run a hotel, B&B or guest house" for guest-property liability, the guest registration duty, and the premises safety duties that come with sleeping accommodation.

  4. 4

    Holiday lets and short-term lets

    Follow "Holiday let licensing and registration by nation" for the four-nation position, and "Get a short-term lets licence in Scotland" if you let north of the border.

  5. 5

    Campsites, caravan parks and holiday parks

    Follow "Run a campsite, caravan site or holiday park" for site licensing, pitch utilities, pools and adventure activities.

  6. 6

    Kitchens, premises and fire safety

    Follow "Health, safety and fire requirements for hospitality venues" and "Commercial kitchen safety: gas, ventilation, and legionella" for the duties that come with the building.

  7. 7

    Staff, pay and tips

    Follow "Employment law for hospitality businesses", "National Minimum Wage, tips, and pay compliance in hospitality" and "Comply with tipping law in hospitality".

  8. 8

    Outdoor trading and waste

    Follow "Outdoor trading and pavement licensing for hospitality" for pavement licences and street trading, and "Commercial waste management for hospitality businesses" for separation and duty-of-care rules.

  9. 9

    The full picture

    Follow "Hospitality annual compliance checklist" to audit yourself against every duty, and "Accommodation regulations for hotels, B&Bs, and short-term lets" for the accommodation overview.

The regulators by nation

Hospitality regulation is shared and partly devolved. Local authorities register food businesses and enforce hygiene everywhere, with the Food Standards Agency covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Food Standards Scotland in Scotland. Alcohol licensing runs under the Licensing Act 2003 in England and Wales, licensing boards under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 in Scotland, and a court-based system in Northern Ireland. Accommodation rules diverge furthest: Scotland licenses short-term lets, Wales opens its statutory visitor accommodation register on 1 October 2026, and Northern Ireland requires Tourism NI certification for all tourist accommodation.

What sits alongside the sector rules

Whichever routes apply: employers' liability insurance is compulsory if you employ anyone (£5 million minimum) — only unincorporated businesses employing close family members alone are exempt; workplace health and safety law and fire risk assessment duties apply to every premises; display of your food hygiene rating is mandatory in Wales and Northern Ireland (voluntary in England; Scotland runs its own information scheme); and from 2027 the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 — Martyn's Law — is expected to bring preparedness duties for venues with a capacity of 200 or more.

Official sources

The core registration gateways for hospitality.