diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index 28718547..083ae2c7 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ open_uprn/*
 land_registry/*
 pytest.ini
 */README.md
+utils/tests/*
diff --git a/backend/README.md b/backend/README.md
index fa1d0068..1d87774d 100644
--- a/backend/README.md
+++ b/backend/README.md
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ FastAPI automatically generates interactive API documentation for your applicati
 server and visit <yourlocalurl>/docs in your browser. Alternatively, you can go to
 <yourlocalurl>/redoc to view the documentation in the ReDoc format.
 
-## Building the backend docker image locally
+## Building the lambda's backend docker image locally
 
 To build the backend docker image locally, run the following command from the root of the project directory:
 
@@ -79,6 +79,29 @@ To run a shell inside the Docker container to inspect its contents, run:
 docker run -it fastapi-lambda-image:latest /bin/bash
 ```
 
+Running in lambda results in running in a slightly different format compared to running the fastapi
+application locally. If you want to run the fastapi application locally, in docker, we have a docker
+file which builds the same environment as in lambda but runs the fast api application with uvicorn.
+
+Run
+
+```commandline
+docker build -t fastapi-local-image:latest -f backend/docker/Dockerfile .
+```
+
+This will be the image. To run it, simply run
+
+```commandline
+docker run -p 8000:8000 -v ~/.aws:/root/.aws fastapi-local-image:latest
+```
+
+This assumes you have a ~/.aws folder with your aws credentials in it. If you don't have this, you can
+run the following command with your aws access token exported into your environment.
+
+```commandline
+docker run -p 8000:8000 -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY -e AWS_DEFAULT_REGION fastapi-local-image:latest
+```
+
 ## Testing
 
 To run tests, run the following command from the root of the project directory:
diff --git a/backend/docker/Dockerfile b/backend/docker/Dockerfile
index 7d35a53a..24f319db 100644
--- a/backend/docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -13,14 +13,25 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y netcat-openbsd
 
 # Install python dependencies
 COPY ./backend/requirements/base.txt ./backend/requirements/base.txt
-COPY ./model_data/requirements/requirements.txt ./model_data/requirements/requirements.txt
 RUN pip install --upgrade pip
-RUN pip install -r backend/requirements/base.txt
-RUN pip install -r model_data/requirements/requirements.txt
+# Install and clean up temp caches
+RUN pip install -r backend/requirements/base.txt && rm -rf /root/.cache
 
-# Copy project
-COPY ./backend ./backend
-COPY ./model_data ./model_data
+# When running locally, we need boto3
+RUN pip install boto3
+
+# Copy project files
+COPY ./backend/ ./backend
+COPY ./recommendations/ ./recommendations
+COPY ./model_data/BaseUtility.py ./model_data/BaseUtility.py
+COPY ./model_data/config.py ./model_data/config.py
+COPY ./model_data/optimiser/ ./model_data/optimiser/
+COPY ./model_data/__init__.py ./model_data/__init__.py
+COPY ./model_data/EpcClean.py ./model_data/EpcClean.py
+COPY ./model_data/utils.py ./model_data/utils.py
+COPY ./model_data/epc_attributes/ ./model_data/epc_attributes/
+COPY ./datatypes/ ./datatypes/
+COPY ./utils/ ./utils/
 
 # command to run on container start
 CMD ["uvicorn", "backend.app.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]
diff --git a/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile b/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile
index 9e16c21a..dab7275c 100644
--- a/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ COPY ./model_data/EpcClean.py ./model_data/EpcClean.py
 COPY ./model_data/utils.py ./model_data/utils.py
 COPY ./model_data/epc_attributes/ ./model_data/epc_attributes/
 COPY ./datatypes/ ./datatypes/
+COPY ./utils/ ./utils/
 
 # Define the handler location
-CMD ["backend.app.main.handler"]
+#CMD ["backend.app.main.handler"]
diff --git a/serverless.yml b/serverless.yml
index 89eb666a..3445e0f9 100644
--- a/serverless.yml
+++ b/serverless.yml
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ custom:
 
 functions:
   app:
+    handler: backend.app.main.handler
     image:
       uri: ${env:ECR_URI}:${env:GITHUB_SHA}
     events: