The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities has been mandatory since 2015 and is short enough to read in ten minutes, which is why it’s surprising how many council websites don’t meet it. Usually the reason is not that the council is hiding anything. It’s that the items live in four different places and nobody’s calendar says when each one is due. This is the list, with the dates.
Who it applies to
The Code applies to parish councils, parish meetings and other smaller authorities with an annual turnover (gross income or gross expenditure, whichever is higher) that doesn’t exceed £25,000. Those councils are exempt from external audit and the Code is the price of that exemption: the public does the scrutiny instead, and the Code says what it must be able to see.
Councils with a turnover between £25,000 and £200,000 aren’t covered by this Code, but they publish almost the same things under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 and the Local Audit regime, and many follow the Code anyway because residents and auditors expect it. Over £200,000, the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 applies instead, and asks for more.
The seven items, and when
| What | What it must include | By when |
|---|---|---|
| All items of expenditure above £100 | Date, purpose, amount and the VAT that can’t be recovered, for every payment over £100 in the year (most councils add the payee, which the Code doesn’t require). A table or spreadsheet is fine. | By 1 July, for the year to 31 March |
| End of year accounts | The accounting statements from the AGAR (section 2), signed, with a bank reconciliation and an explanation of any significant differences from the previous year. | By 1 July |
| Annual governance statement | Section 1 of the AGAR, signed by the chair and the clerk. | By 1 July |
| Internal audit report | The internal auditor’s report for the year, as it appears in the AGAR. | By 1 July |
| Councillor or member responsibilities | A list of councillors, with any committee memberships or responsibilities and, where they represent the council on another body, which one. | By 1 July, and kept current |
| Public land and building assets | What the council owns or controls: description, location, size where relevant, owner or custodian, date of acquisition and purchase cost if known, and present use. | By 1 July |
| Minutes, agendas and meeting papers | Draft minutes of full council and committee meetings, and the agendas and papers for forthcoming meetings. | Draft minutes within one month of the meeting; agendas and papers at least three clear days before it |
What “publish” means
On a website that anyone can reach without charge: the council’s own, or its billing authority’s (the district, borough or unitary council). Putting it on the noticeboard doesn’t count, though you should do that too for agendas. Nor does “available from the clerk on request”. If the council later finds an error in something it published, the Code asks it to publish the correction and say what changed.
The information should stay available. Residents comparing this year’s spending with last year’s need last year’s still to be there, so keep each year’s items on the site rather than replacing them.
How councils keep to it without noticing
The annual items all come out of the AGAR process, which has to finish by 30 June anyway. If the clerk uploads the signed sections, the internal audit report and the expenditure list on the same day the council approves the accounts, the 1 July deadline looks after itself. The councillor list changes in May after the annual meeting; the asset register changes when something is bought or sold. The minutes are the monthly one.
The failure mode is a website where each item has to be found and uploaded separately, by someone who has to remember it’s due. The fix is either a calendar with seven entries in it or a website that shows the clerk which of the seven is published, missing or overdue. Either works. Neither is what most councils have.
Checking a council’s site
If you want to know whether your council meets the Code, open the website and look for the seven items, dated. Minutes that stop in March, an asset register from 2019, or an expenditure list that’s a scanned PDF are the usual gaps. The internal auditor will look the same way in April, so it’s better to look first.