Background retinopathy indicates mild damage due to diabetes and does not affect your sight or need any treatment. It can include microaneurysms (small bulges on the capillaries which appear as small red dots) and haemorrhages (small flecks of blood which have leaked out of the capillary). There is a good explanation of background retinopathy here:-
http://www.diabeticretinopathy.org.uk/back_diabetic_retinopathy.html
If someone has poor diabetic control, the retinopathy may progress to a stage where it does start to affect vision. However, good control of blood glucose and blood pressure reduces the chance of this. As
@Rachox says, some people find that with continued good diabetic control,t heir background retinopathy seems to clear up. Any bleeds seen this year will be gone by next year but individual microaneurysms usually take a few years to disappear. Even if improved control means you have no new diabetic retinopathy, it could be a few years before this is reflected in your screening results.