Diminished staffing levels and the COVID-19 pandemic have both said to have put pressure on local authorities to implement the food hygiene inspection model in England. The Food Standards Agency have recently proposed changes to the delivery model that may reduce the frequency of inspections taking place or replace them with intelligence driven alternatives that are largely self-regulating. An exploration of the data held in the food hygiene rating scheme was able to reveal how inspection outputs have changed over time, the effect of COVID-19 on inspection backlogs, and the significance of urbanity on compliance with food law. By examining differences in compliance, we are able to determine whether segmentation of the catering and retail sectors could be supported by the data in order to reduce inspection frequencies by local authority officers.