Publication duties

Local government transparency code publication page

The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 sets what an English council must publish. Named items must sit on the council website. Quarterly: spend over £500 and contracts over £5,000, within one month of quarter end. Annually: land, senior salaries, pay multiple. Parish councils up to £25,000 turnover follow the smaller-authority code. The 2015 Code catches parish councils only above £200,000.

A reference note from Dan Malone, who builds software products.

The rule

“published quarterly thereafter and on each occasion not later than 1 month after the quarter to which the data and information is applicable”

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Local government transparency code 2015, paragraph 27 (updated 29 January 2025)Checked 2026-09-01

The facts

What the duty actually says

Typed fields for Local government transparency code publication page
Field	Value
Who the 2015 Code covers	England only. County, district and London borough councils, National Park authorities, fire and rescue authorities, combined authorities, Transport for London and others. It also covers a parish council whose gross annual income or expenditure is above £200,000. Source
Quarterly deadline	Publish quarterly data no later than 1 month after the quarter it relates to. Repeat every quarter. Source
Spend over £500	Publish each item of expenditure above £500. Give the date, the department, the beneficiary, a summary of purpose, the amount, irrecoverable VAT and the merchant category. Source
Tenders and contracts over £5,000	Two lists, both above £5,000. Invitations to tender need a reference number, title, description of the goods or services, start, end and review dates, and the responsible department. Contracts, purchase orders and frameworks need all of that plus supplier name and details, the sum over the contract length, irrecoverable VAT, and a small or medium enterprise or voluntary-sector flag with the registration number. Source
Annual set and deadline	Land and buildings, grants, organisation chart of the top 3 levels, trade union facility time, parking account, parking spaces, senior salaries, constitution, pay multiple and counter-fraud data. Publish no later than 1 month after the year it relates to. Source
Social housing values	Publish social housing asset values each April. Band them at postal sector level. Give the occupied and vacant percentages. Do not let a single dwelling be identified. Source
Format rule	Data under Part 2 of the Code must be published in open and machine-readable formats. The Open Government Licence is the recommended licence. Source
On the authority's own website	These items must sit on the authority website, or be linked from it: senior salary data with the list of responsibilities, bonuses and benefits-in-kind for every employee paid above £50,000; the constitution; the pay multiple; the parking account. Source
Smaller authorities: legal duty	Regulation 2(1) of the Smaller Authorities (Transparency Requirements) (England) Regulations 2015 makes the Code a legal duty. An authority the Code applies to must publish the specified information in the manner, form and on the occasions the Code specifies. Source
Smaller authorities: what and when	Turnover not exceeding £25,000. By 1 July each year: every spend item above £100, end-of-year accounts, annual governance statement, internal audit report, councillor responsibilities, and land and building assets. Source
Smaller authorities: meeting papers	Draft minutes of every formal meeting go up no later than one month after the meeting. Agendas and meeting papers go up no later than 3 clear days before the meeting. Publication must be on a website that is free to use. Source
Accounts publication deadline	Regulation 13(1) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 applies to a Category 2 authority. It must publish the statement of accounts and the annual governance statement on its website. Publication comes after the period for the exercise of public rights ends, and no later than 30 September following the financial year end. Regulation 13(3) disapplies this for a Category 2 authority with exempt status. Source

The artefact

What the published page has to contain

A quarterly expenditure file listing each item over the Code's spending threshold, with date, department, beneficiary, purpose, amount, irrecoverable VAT and merchant category
A tenders list and a contracts register, both above the Code's contract threshold. The contracts register carries supplier, sum, and start, end and review dates
Downloadable machine-readable files such as CSV, under the Open Government Licence, not scans or images of tables
The annual set: land and buildings, organisation chart of the top 3 levels, senior salaries above £50,000 with responsibilities and bonuses, pay multiple, parking account, trade union facility time, counter-fraud figures
The constitution, published on the authority's own website
For a smaller authority: spend over £100, signed accounts, annual governance statement, internal audit report, councillor responsibilities, asset list, plus minutes and agendas
A visible publication date on each dataset, and a note on any file that was later amended
An archive of past quarters and years, so the series can be compared

What goes wrong

How this is usually got wrong

/01
The quarterly file goes up more than one month after quarter end, so the series shows a gap
/02
Data is posted as a PDF or a scanned table, which fails the open and machine-readable rule
/03
A new quarter overwrites the old file, so earlier periods disappear and comparison is impossible
/04
The senior pay page only links to an external audit document, instead of holding the data on the authority website
/05
A smaller council publishes the annual pack after 1 July. Or it posts the pack on a social media page, not a free public website
/06
Corrections are made silently, with no note of what changed and when
/07
Tables are built in a way a screen reader cannot follow, so the data is unreadable to some of the public
/08
The land and asset list omits vacant or sublet property, or drops the Unique Property Reference Number
/09
Contract entries leave out the SME or voluntary-sector flag and the registration number
/10
Nobody owns the calendar, so the annual items are published once and never repeated

Who supplies this

Where the source material lives

Vision ICT
Builds websites for town and parish councils in the UK, with tiers for small parish, parish and larger councils. States it supplies over 700 councils and local authorities.
https://www.visionict.com/
HugoFox
Website builder used by parish councils, charities and clubs. Common low-cost route for a smaller authority that needs a free public website to publish on.
https://www.hugofox.com/
Cuttlefish Communities (formerly 2commune)
Websites for parish and town councils, local groups and charities, sold on accessibility and compliance standards. The old 2commune.com domain now redirects here.
https://cuttlefish.com/communities/
Scribe
Cloud accounting and bookings software for parish, town and community councils. Produces the spend and year-end records that the publication page has to carry.
https://www.scribeaccounts.com/
National Association of Local Councils (NALC)
Sector body for parish and town councils. Publishes plain-English guidance on both codes and managed the £4.7 million transparency fund that ran to February 2018.
https://www.nalc.gov.uk/support/finance-advice/transparency-code.html

Every note in publication duties

Need the page this duty asks for?

Send the duty, the deadline and where it has to sit. What comes back is a written scope for the page, or a straight answer that you do not need one.

Send the brief

Sources

Last checked 2026-09-01 · Published 2026-09-01

This page is reference material, not legal advice. Your advisor owns what applies to you.

Local government transparency code publication page

A reference note from Dan Malone, who builds software products.

What the duty actually says

Typed fields for Local government transparency code publication page
Field	Value
Who the 2015 Code covers	England only. County, district and London borough councils, National Park authorities, fire and rescue authorities, combined authorities, Transport for London and others. It also covers a parish council whose gross annual income or expenditure is above £200,000. Source
Quarterly deadline	Publish quarterly data no later than 1 month after the quarter it relates to. Repeat every quarter. Source
Spend over £500	Publish each item of expenditure above £500. Give the date, the department, the beneficiary, a summary of purpose, the amount, irrecoverable VAT and the merchant category. Source
Tenders and contracts over £5,000	Two lists, both above £5,000. Invitations to tender need a reference number, title, description of the goods or services, start, end and review dates, and the responsible department. Contracts, purchase orders and frameworks need all of that plus supplier name and details, the sum over the contract length, irrecoverable VAT, and a small or medium enterprise or voluntary-sector flag with the registration number. Source
Annual set and deadline	Land and buildings, grants, organisation chart of the top 3 levels, trade union facility time, parking account, parking spaces, senior salaries, constitution, pay multiple and counter-fraud data. Publish no later than 1 month after the year it relates to. Source
Social housing values	Publish social housing asset values each April. Band them at postal sector level. Give the occupied and vacant percentages. Do not let a single dwelling be identified. Source
Format rule	Data under Part 2 of the Code must be published in open and machine-readable formats. The Open Government Licence is the recommended licence. Source
On the authority's own website	These items must sit on the authority website, or be linked from it: senior salary data with the list of responsibilities, bonuses and benefits-in-kind for every employee paid above £50,000; the constitution; the pay multiple; the parking account. Source
Smaller authorities: legal duty	Regulation 2(1) of the Smaller Authorities (Transparency Requirements) (England) Regulations 2015 makes the Code a legal duty. An authority the Code applies to must publish the specified information in the manner, form and on the occasions the Code specifies. Source
Smaller authorities: what and when	Turnover not exceeding £25,000. By 1 July each year: every spend item above £100, end-of-year accounts, annual governance statement, internal audit report, councillor responsibilities, and land and building assets. Source
Smaller authorities: meeting papers	Draft minutes of every formal meeting go up no later than one month after the meeting. Agendas and meeting papers go up no later than 3 clear days before the meeting. Publication must be on a website that is free to use. Source
Accounts publication deadline	Regulation 13(1) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 applies to a Category 2 authority. It must publish the statement of accounts and the annual governance statement on its website. Publication comes after the period for the exercise of public rights ends, and no later than 30 September following the financial year end. Regulation 13(3) disapplies this for a Category 2 authority with exempt status. Source

What the published page has to contain

A quarterly expenditure file listing each item over the Code's spending threshold, with date, department, beneficiary, purpose, amount, irrecoverable VAT and merchant category

A tenders list and a contracts register, both above the Code's contract threshold. The contracts register carries supplier, sum, and start, end and review dates

Downloadable machine-readable files such as CSV, under the Open Government Licence, not scans or images of tables

The annual set: land and buildings, organisation chart of the top 3 levels, senior salaries above £50,000 with responsibilities and bonuses, pay multiple, parking account, trade union facility time, counter-fraud figures

The constitution, published on the authority's own website

For a smaller authority: spend over £100, signed accounts, annual governance statement, internal audit report, councillor responsibilities, asset list, plus minutes and agendas

A visible publication date on each dataset, and a note on any file that was later amended

An archive of past quarters and years, so the series can be compared

How this is usually got wrong

/01

The quarterly file goes up more than one month after quarter end, so the series shows a gap

/02

Data is posted as a PDF or a scanned table, which fails the open and machine-readable rule

/03

A new quarter overwrites the old file, so earlier periods disappear and comparison is impossible

/04

The senior pay page only links to an external audit document, instead of holding the data on the authority website

/05

A smaller council publishes the annual pack after 1 July. Or it posts the pack on a social media page, not a free public website

/06

Corrections are made silently, with no note of what changed and when

/07

Tables are built in a way a screen reader cannot follow, so the data is unreadable to some of the public

/08

The land and asset list omits vacant or sublet property, or drops the Unique Property Reference Number

/09

Contract entries leave out the SME or voluntary-sector flag and the registration number

/10

Nobody owns the calendar, so the annual items are published once and never repeated

Where the source material lives

Vision ICT

Builds websites for town and parish councils in the UK, with tiers for small parish, parish and larger councils. States it supplies over 700 councils and local authorities.

https://www.visionict.com/

HugoFox

Website builder used by parish councils, charities and clubs. Common low-cost route for a smaller authority that needs a free public website to publish on.

https://www.hugofox.com/

Cuttlefish Communities (formerly 2commune)

Websites for parish and town councils, local groups and charities, sold on accessibility and compliance standards. The old 2commune.com domain now redirects here.

https://cuttlefish.com/communities/

Scribe

Cloud accounting and bookings software for parish, town and community councils. Produces the spend and year-end records that the publication page has to carry.

https://www.scribeaccounts.com/

National Association of Local Councils (NALC)

Sector body for parish and town councils. Publishes plain-English guidance on both codes and managed the £4.7 million transparency fund that ran to February 2018.

https://www.nalc.gov.uk/support/finance-advice/transparency-code.html