National Level Regulation

In yesterday’s budget announcement, the government directed the FSA to prioritise the development of a new national regulatory system for highly compliant, large food businesses in England, aiming to reduce regulatory burdens. Below, we provide a brief overview of the National Level Regulation (NLR), its potential benefits for businesses, the BRC’s involvement alongside major retailer members, and the next steps. For a statement from FSA CEO Katie Pettifer, please see here.

 

What is the National Level Regulation (NLR)?
The NLR (formerly known as the Enterprise Level Regulation) is a proposed framework for food hygiene regulation tailored to large, national businesses. As the food sector evolves rapidly, ensuring food safety through smarter, adaptive regulation is increasingly important. The NLR reflects a move toward a more informed, national approach to food safety oversight for major businesses.

 

How can the NLR support businesses?
This proposal encourages collaboration across the food sector to enhance compliance, focusing resources on the highest-risk areas. By streamlining processes, it aims to reduce administrative burdens and enable faster identification and management of food safety risks across entire organisations. Large businesses, including our retailer members, have established strong relationships with local and primary authorities—a role that remains vital in the new model. Ultimately, this collaborative approach presents a valuable opportunity that the BRC fully supports.

 

The BRC and its largest members’ involvement:
To test the NLR concept, five of our largest retailer members participated in a ‘proof of concept’ trial with the FSA. These members demonstrate high levels of compliance, and through data sharing, regular meetings, and joint insights, both parties gained a clearer understanding of national regulatory compliance.

Stakeholders have been kept informed of the progress in workshops held earlier this year, which the BRC was present with our members participating in the trials.

 

Next steps:

The BRC held it's regular call with FSA CEO Katie Pettifer this week with technical leads, where we heard of further work with our retailer members, stakeholders and a follow up on proposals to the model being included in the FSA's March board meeting. 

We maintain ongoing engagement with the FSA, including through our Emerging Risks Working Group, which members are encouraged to continue attending in 2026 for key updates and more on implementation.