The Health Hygiene Assessment evaluates the hygiene conditions and infection control practices.

Premises registered under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 includes hairdressers, beauty parlours, tattooists and ear piercing establishments.

This provides incentives aimed at encouraging proprietors to improve hygiene standards and infection control procedures and work towards best practice.

The rating of premises is designed to achieve two objectives:

• To provide a measure of performance and the level of compliance with legislative requirements;
• To manage non compliance and establish a system for follow up inspections.

The assessment score is converted to a star rating which relates to the overall performance of the business as shown in the table below:

Star rating	Percentage Assessment Score	Whitehorse City Council Grading	Department of Health Reporting
5 stars	91-100%	Excellent (incorporating best practice)	Compliant
4 stars	As above	Very Good	Compliant
3 stars	81-90%	Satisfactory	Compliant
2 stars	71-80%	Unsatisfactory	Major non-compliance
1 star	70% and below	Poor	Critical non-compliance

A 4 and 5 star rating demonstrates a high standard of compliance with legislative requirements, including the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, Public Health and Wellbeing Regulations 2019 and Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines for Hair, Beauty, Tattooing and Skin Penetration Industries. In addition a 5 star rating demonstrates best practice through implementing procedures and record keeping above and beyond legislative requirements.

Businesses are provided with certificates of their star rating to display within the premises and may be promoted through Council publications.