Local Government Transparency Code 2015
The transparency code is issued to meet the government’s desire to place more power into citizens hands to increase democratic accountability and make it easier for local people to contribute to the local decision-making process and help shape public services.
Transparency is the foundation of local accountability and the key that gives people the tools and information they need to enable them to play a bigger role in society.
The availability of data can also open new markets for local business, the voluntary and community sectors and social enterprises to run services or manage public assets.
Data means the objective, factual data, on which policy decisions are based and on which public services are assessed, or which is collected or generated in the course of public service delivery.
This should be the basis for publication of information on the discharge of local authority functions.
Local Government Transparency Code 2015
The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 (the code) came into effect on 1 April 2015. The code is issued by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in exercise of powers under section 2 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980, and replaces any previous codes issued in relation to authorities in England under those powers.
The code does not replace or supersede the existing framework for access to and re-use of public sector information.
Penistone Town Council meets the definition of a local authority covered by the requirements of the code, defined as ‘a parish council which has a gross annual income or expenditure (whichever is higher) exceeding £200.000’.
The code requires local authorities in England to publish the following information quarterly:
1. Expenditure exceeding £500
The code requires that local authorities must publish details of expenditure that exceeds £500.
Please see the Finance section of the website under PTC Outgoings and Paramount Outgoings.
2. Government Procurement Card
The code requires that local authorities must publish details of every transaction on a Government Procurement Card.
Penistone Town Council does not use a Government Procurement Card and therefore has no information to publish.
3. Procurement Information
The code requires that local authorities must publish details of every invitation to tender for contracts to provide goods and/or services with a value that exceeds £5000.
Local authorities must also publish details of any contract, commissioned activity, purchase order, framework agreement and any other legally enforceable agreement with a value that exceeds £5000.
Information not currently available.
Additionally, local authorities are required to publish the following information annually:
1. Local Authority Land
The code requires that local authorities must publish details of all land and building assets.
Please see the Finance section of the website under Asset Register.
2. Social Housing Assets
The code requires that local authorities must publish details of the value of social housing stock that is held in their Housing revenue Account.
The following social housing stock data must be published:
- Valuation data to be listed at postal sector level
- Valuation data for the dwellings using both Existing Use Value for Social Housing and market value as at 1 April
- An explanation of the difference between tenanted sale value of dwellings within the Housing revenue Account and their market sale value
Penistone Town Council does not hold any social housing stock and therefore has no information to publish.
3. Grants
The code requires that local authorities must publish details of all grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.
Please see the Finance section of the website under Grants.
4. Organisational Chart
The code requires that local authorities must publish an organisation chart including all employees whose salary exceeds £50,000.
Penistone Town Council has no employees whose salary exceeds £50,000 and therefore has no information to publish.
5. Trade Union Facility Time
The code requires that local authorities must publish the following information on trade union facility time:
- Total number (absolute number and full time equivalent) of staff who are union representatives
- Total number (absolute number and full time equivalent) of union representatives who devote at least 50 per cent of their time to union duties
- Names of all trade union represented in the local authority
- A basic estimate of spending on unions
- A basic estimate of spending on unions as a percentage of the total pay bill
Penistone Town Council has no staff members who are union representatives and therefore has no information to publish.
6. Parking Account
The code requires that local authorities must publish on their website, or place a link on their website to this data if published elsewhere:
- A breakdown of income and expenditure on the authority’s parking account, including details of revenue collected from on-street parking, off-street parking and Penalty Charge Notices
- A breakdown of how the authority has spent a surplus on its parking account
Penistone Town Council has no chargeable parking and therefore has no information to publish.
7. Parking Spaces
The code requires that local authorities must publish the number of marked or controlled on and off-street parking spaces within their area, or an estimate of the number of spaces where controlled parking space is not marked out in individual parking bays or spaces.
Penistone Town Council has 41 parking spaces for users of the St John’s Community Centre and Resource Centre under its control.
8. Senior Salaries
Local authorities are already required to publish, under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, the following information regarding senior salaries:
- The number of employees whose remuneration in that year was at least £50,000 in brackets of £5,000
- Details of remuneration and job title of certain senior employees whose salary is a least £50,000
- Employees whose salaries are £150,000 or more must also be identified by name
In addition to this requirement, local authorities must place a link on their website to these published data or place the data itself on their website, together with a list of responsibilities (for example, the services and functions they are responsible for, budget held and number of staff) and details of bonuses and ‘benefits-in-kind’, for all employees whose salary exceeds £50,000.
Penistone Town Council has no staff members whose salary is £50,000 or greater.
9. Constitution
Local authorities are already required to make their Constitution available for inspection at their offices under section 9P of the Local Government Act 2000. Local authorities must also, under this Code, publish their Constitution on their website.
Penistone Town Council’s constitution is made up of the Standing Orders, Code of Conduct and Financial Regulations.
10. Pay Multiple
The code requires that local authorities must publish the pay multiple on their website, defined as the ratio between the highest paid taxable earnings for the given year (including base, salary, variable pay, bonuses, allowances and the cash value of any benefits-in-kind) and the median earnings figure of the whole of the authority’s workforce.
The measure must:
- Cover all the elements of remuneration that can be valued
- Use the median earnings figure as the denominator, which should be that of all employees of the local authority on a fixed date each year, coinciding with reporting at the end of the financial year
- Exclude changes in pension benefits, which due to their variety and complexity cannot be accurately included in a pay multiple disclosure
Penistone Town Council’s pay multiple for 2023/24 was 6.8:1
11. Fraud
The code requires that local authorities must publish the following information about their counter fraud work:
- Number of occasions they use powers under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (Power to Require Information) (England) Regulations 2014, or similar powers
- Total number (absolute and full time equivalent) of employees undertaking investigations and prosecutions of fraud
- Total number (absolute and full time equivalent) of professionally accredited counter fraud specialists
- Total amount spent by the authority on the investigation and prosecution of fraud
- Total number of fraud cases investigated
Penistone Town Council has no staff members undertaking fraud investigation work and therefore has no information to publish.
Additionally, local authorities are required to publish the following information once only:
1. Waste Contracts
The code requires that local authorities must publish details of their existing waste collection contracts.
Penistone Town Council has the following waste collection contracts:
- BMBC – waste collection from St John’s Community Centre
- Biffa – waste collection from the Paramount Cinema
- PHS – waste collection from St John’s Community Centre, Paramount Cinema, Public Toilets.