London nursery hit with record fine after mouse droppings found

Busy Bees branch within hospital complex fined 225,000 plus costs for food safety and hygiene offences

A branch of Britain's largest private childcare provider has been hit with a record fine after inspectors found fresh mouse droppings in the kitchen and the children's play areas of a nursery within an NHS hospital complex in east London.

Busy Bees - which operates 375 nurseries in England, Scotland and Wales - was fined 225,000 and 15,000 in costs by a court in London last week, after pleading guilty to food safety and hygiene offences uncovered at its nursery on the grounds of Whipps Cross university hospital in Leytonstone.