RESTAURANTS with poor food hygiene ratings may not be receiving repeat inspections from environmental health officers to check they have made improvements.

Under the council's "Scores on the Doors" system, restaurants and other premises where food is prepared are inspected, given star ratings for how hygienic they are and the scores are published online at yourlondon.gov.uk.

But even though many restaurants received scores of one or no stars out of five, the website shows that for some of them, their last inspection date was as much as three years ago.

Ratings below two stars mean that restaurant staff must make significant changes to comply with legal requirements and may have "little or no appreciation of food safety".

Despite this, the council has said its Scores on the Doors webpage is currently up to date and that inspections are generally only carried out once every two or three years.

Cabinet member for community safety, enforcement and protection Cllr Afzal Akram said: "Our main priority is to protect the public and we work with residents to identify and take action against premises, which pose the greatest risk to people’s health.

"We have one of the best records in London in terms of closing unhygienic and unsafe food premises and have a rolling programme of inspections which aims to deal with premises which are of most concern to the council first.

"If owners feel they are overdue a visit, they should contact us and we will arrange a surprise visit."

There are 2,100 food premises, including restaurants, shops and schools, in Waltham Forest and the council said it visits about 600 of these every year.

In the last financial year, 20 premises were closed for serious breaches of food hygiene.

To view the star ratings for all premises in Waltham Forest, visit the council's Scores on the Doors website.