Following the proposals of a government report, pubs, restaurants and other food outlets may soon be required to display their food hygiene rating.

The report, Common Sense, Common Safety, prepared by Lord Young at the request of PM David Cameron, follows a Whitehall-wide review of the the operation of health and safety laws and the growth of the compensation culture and sets out a number of recommendations. One of these concerns the Food Standards Agency's Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS), about which it says that local authority participation should be made mandatory, with businesses being given a rating of 0 to 5 and the information made freely available online.

Other recommendations in the report cover combining food safety and health and safety inspectors in local authorities; promoting the use of the rating scheme in the media; encouraging the voluntary display of ratings, with this being made compulsory if necessary; and the publishing online of the results of any local authority inspections. Lord Young said: "I believe that consistency is essential for this approach to be effective. A mandatory national food hygiene rating scheme will deliver the maximum benefit to consumers and minimise the costs to businesses, so this single scheme must be rolled out across all local authorities."

The scheme is already in operation in Wales, with some English regions expected to follow later. The numeric FHRS scale - which replaces the former 'Scores on the Doors Scheme' - sets 5 as very good food hygiene standards; four - good; three - generally satisfactory; two - improvement necessary; one - major improvement necessary; and zero - urgent improvement necessary.