Step-by-step business journeys

Start a brewery or distillery

Launch a brewery, distillery, winery, or cidery in the UK

Start a hospitality business: licences, food safety, and compliance

End-to-end learning path for opening a hospitality business. Covers premises licences, food business registration, HACCP, fire safety, employer obligations, tipping law, and music licensing. Signposts to specialist guides for accommodation, events, and gaming.

Start a food business for the first time

Everything you need to do before opening a food business. Covers registration, premises, HACCP, training, allergens, labelling, and preparing for your first inspection.

Start a food business in Wales

Start a food manufacturing business

Set up a food or drink production and manufacturing business

Start a restaurant

Open a restaurant, cafe, or food business

Set up as an alcohol or drinks producer

Learning path for new drinks producers — brewers, distillers, winemakers and cidermakers, and makers of soft drinks and bottled water. Work out which rules apply, register and run a safe food business, get the producer approval and duty or levy obligations in place for what you make, then verify everything with a compliance checklist.

Set up an animal-origin food business

Learning path for new makers of products of animal origin — meat, poultry, fish and dairy. Work out which rules apply, register and run a safe food business, get your establishment approved and meet the animal-welfare, by-product and product-safety controls, then verify everything with a compliance checklist.

Set up as a food manufacturer

Learning path for new general and processed food manufacturers — bakeries, confectioners, oil and fat processors, millers and makers of prepared foods. Work out which rules apply, register and run a safe food business, keep contaminants and composition within legal limits, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.

Meet environmental compliance requirements

Navigate your environmental obligations including waste duty of care, pollution prevention, packaging responsibilities, and energy reporting

Hospitality compliance quick check

Quick compliance check for experienced hospitality operators. Covers licensing, food safety, fire risk, tipping policy, right to work, gas safety, music licensing, and insurance.

Meet food safety requirements for your business

Register, implement HACCP, and comply with food safety law including allergen requirements

Open new hospitality premises: from lease to launch

End-to-end journey from signing a lease to opening night. Covers planning use class checks, premises licence application timeline, building regulations and fire safety, commercial kitchen fit-out, food business registration, music licensing, pavement licensing, and staff recruitment with right to work checks.

Accommodation compliance for hotels, B&Bs, and holiday lets

Compliance journey for accommodation providers covering tourist registration, fire safety for sleeping accommodation, legionella management, VAT on accommodation, short-term lets regulation, HMO licensing, and data protection for guest data.

Respond to a hospitality licensing investigation

What to do if your hospitality business faces a licensing review, environmental health investigation, fire safety enforcement notice, or HMRC compliance check. Covers identifying the investigation type, understanding your rights, gathering evidence, getting representation, and preventing recurrence.

Building regulations compliance for renovation

Navigate building control approval, thermal upgrade requirements, and competent person schemes when renovating business premises

Improve your food hygiene rating

Practical steps to improve a poor food hygiene rating. Understand what inspectors scored, fix the issues, and request a re-inspection.

Quick check: running a food business in Wales

Quick compliance check for Wales-specific food business obligations. Covers mandatory hygiene ratings, food waste separation, registration, and environmental permits.

Respond to food safety enforcement action in Wales

What to do if your food business in Wales receives an improvement notice, prohibition order, or prosecution. Covers your rights, response deadlines, appeal options, and steps to prevent future enforcement action.

Water Framework Directive compliance for businesses

Complete compliance pathway for businesses whose activities may affect water body status — from understanding the WFD framework through identifying which licences, permits, or consents you need, to applying, monitoring, and reporting. Covers England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Running a holiday let

Step-by-step compliance guide for self-catering holiday accommodation. Covers licensing, safety, tax, food hygiene, and employment obligations.

Respond to a poor food hygiene rating in Wales

Food safety quick compliance check

A quick compliance check for food business operators. Covers registration, HACCP, allergens, temperature control, training, and record keeping.

Packaging producer compliance journey

Understand the overlapping environmental obligations for businesses that handle packaging. Covers Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT), and Simpler Recycling requirements, and explains how they interact.

Managing business waste and duty of care compliance

Navigate your legal obligations for business waste - duty of care, waste carriers, transfer notes, recycling separation, and digital waste tracking

Help with Wales Visitor Levy

Troubleshooting guide for Wales visitor accommodation registration and levy collection. Helps accommodation providers understand registration requirements, council levy adoption, and how to collect and remit the levy.

Respond to a food safety incident

Immediate steps when unsafe food is discovered or a customer reports illness. Stop selling, withdraw the product, notify the FSA, and cooperate with enforcement.