Transparency - expenditure, salaries, accounts

The Government’s transparency programme aims to ensure information about public services is made available to people so that they can play a bigger role in society and help shape their local services. 

The Local Government Transparency Code sets out the information that Councils must publish either once a year or every three months. We aim to keep information for the current year and the previous two financial years online.

Making our data available to you

We strive to be open, honest and accountable in all that we do and are trying hard to make our information available to you. Below are links to the data we are currently making public.

Expenditure over £500

Find out about what we spend on goods, services and works. These reports list the payments we have made that are £500 or more.

• Expenditure over £500

Grant Payments

Find out about our grant payments to voluntary organisations.

• Grant Payments

Procurement Information – Tenders and Contract

Find out about the invitations to tender we have advertised in the last 3 months.

• Invitations to tender 

Find out about the procurement agreements (contracts, use of frameworks etc.) we have in place for purchases over the Council’s “Invitation to Tender” threshold of £45,000.

• What we have purchased 

Government Procurement Card Payments

The Council does not use the Government Procurement Card.

The Council makes very little use of Credit Cards and where they are used they are usually reserved for specific purposes and controlled by senior managers.

Senior Salaries and Council Employment

The Structure Chart and data file gives details of the salaries paid to the Council's Senior Management.  This information will be updated next in January 2018. 

• Senior Salaries - Structure Chart PDF, XLS, CSV 

Pay Policy Statement

The Pay Policy Statement describes the Council’s approach to pay and helps provide transparency on how it sets the pay of its employees.  It provides information on Senior Management pay and how it relates to other staff. 

Currently the median Chief Officers pay is 2.61 times that of the rest of our employees.  Our top earning Chief Officer earns 4.13 times the median salary of the rest of our employees.

• All about pay – Pay Policy Statement 

Waste Contracts

The Transparency Code requires Councils to publish the details of all existing waste collection contracts. 

The Council does not have any contracts in place for waste collection.  All collection services are provided in-house by the Council’s own staff. 

Trade Union Facility Time

The Council has no union representatives who spend the majority of their time on union duties.   

• Trade union activities 

Council Car Parking

The Council is not responsible for on-street parking control and does not have marked-out controlled parking.  View charges for off-street parking, in Council Car Parks.

The Council does not make a surplus on its parking account.

Financial Accounts and Audit of Accounts

Once a year the Council makes its accounts and other related documents, available for inspection before they are finalised.  The dates for the inspection of accounts are published on this website at the appropriate time. 

Once the Accounts have been finalised they are reported to the Council and made available on this website. 

Land and Building Assets

Find out about the Council’s Land and Building Assets. We are working to improve this information and updates will be published at appropriate times.

• Land and Buildings 

Counter Fraud

Responsibility for Housing Benefit Counter Fraud activity was transferred to the Department of Work and Pensions as part of the Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS) and fraud referrals were sent to the DWP from the end of April 2015. Resource for other counter fraud work is bought in and averages 18 days per annum.

• Counter Fraud Activity 

Social Housing Asset Values

• Social Housing valuation data by postcode sector and within value bands. 

Other information

The Council publishes a vast amount of information on this website which people can use to become informed or involved in services and decisions. Examples of this include council minutes and reports, job vacancies, planning applications and decisions etc.

For more information on the Governments Transparency Code visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-transparency-code-2014

The data provided in this area of the website is made available in keeping with the conditions of the Freedom of Information Act, and is freely usable under the terms of the Open Government Licence