Science Council Accessibility Statement

This website is run by the Food Standards Agency. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of any issues we currently know about in the non-accessible content section of this statement. 

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

• email the Science Council secretariat at: sciencecouncil@food.gov.uk 
• call 020 7276 8024
• write to the Science Council secretariat at: Clive House, 70 Petty France, London, SW1H 9EX

We will consider your request and get back to you in 7 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: Bethan Davies at SERD@food.gov.uk or alternatively phone on 020 7276 8024. 

Read tips on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites. 

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Food Standards Agency is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Some of our PDFs are not fully accessible. They are not tagged properly, they do have clear titles and not all images have alternative text. This makes them difficult to read with a screen reader and for keyboard-only users. (WCAG 2.4.2 Page Title, WACG 1.1 Text alternatives, WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Colour, WCAG 2.1 Keyboard Accessible). Should you be unable to access the documents, email serd@food.gov.uk or call 020 7276 8024 and we can look into providing an alternative for you. We are working as quickly as possible to fix these issues in priority order and plan to complete this work by October 2021. 

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content that's not within scope of the accessibility regulations 

PDFs and other documents

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. For example, we will not be making our archived documents accessible at this time. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25 August 2020. It was last reviewed on 28 July 2021. 

This website was last tested on 4 June 2021 by the Digital Accessibility Centre.

The site was tested using a sample of pages. Any problems identified were fixed across the site to ensure consistency. We will continue to test the website using our automated checking tools.