Transparency Code Part 3
Posted : Blog Post : 27.01.2020 - North West Open Data
This post summarises the second section of the Department for Communities and Local Government Local Government Transparency Code 2015. The document is split into 3 parts with 3 related Annexes
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Part 1 Introduction, which sets out the context of the document, government postion, basic principles and aims, scope, legal context, a clarification of “commercial confidentiality” and exemptions, the timeliness of reporting and handling errors and finally details of further information and support (Paragraphs 1-25)
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Part 2 Information that must be published, this sets out reports to be produced quarterly, anually and reports that only need to be produced once. High level descriptions of reports is provided and methods of publication specified(Paragraphs 26-55)
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Part 3 Information recommended for publication, this section sets out that Part 2 defines the minimum data that local authorities must produce and then sets out aspirations for publication and proposes a 1-5 star rating system and a statement that the government expects 3 star quality within 6 months of the Code being issued. (Paragraphs 56-70)
1. Part 3 : Aspirations
Part II sets out the minimum standards, Part III sets out aspirations
The Government believes that in principle all data held and managed by local authorities should be made available to local people unless there are specific sensitivities to doing so. Therefore, it encourages local authorities to go much further in publishing the data they hold, recognising the benefits of sharing that data for local people, more effective service delivery and better policy making. Part 3 of this Code sets out details of data that the Government recommends local authorities publish.
Section 56
Report | Frequency | Aspiration |
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Expenditure exceeding £500 |
Quarterly |
monthly over £250, all corporate credit & charge cards, total amount spent on remunerations, classify expenditure using Chartered Institute of Public Accountancy Service Reporting Code of Practice to enable comparability between authorities. |
Government Procurement Card Transactions |
Quarterly |
a/a |
Procurement information |
Quarterly |
Information to be published on Contracts Finder as well as any local portal. Report to be published monthly or even real time, threshold value to be reduced to £500, invitations to quote where no formal tender, company numbers, upcoming tenders/quotes next 12 months, geographical detail, by ward, detail performance by KPI, more detail on voluntary/community category |
Local authority land |
Yearly |
monthly or real time and should publish on e-PIMS. 8 further enhancements are suggested, eg size, services, reason for holding etc |
Social housing asset value |
Yearly |
- |
Grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations |
Yearly |
monthly, real time, more detail on voluntary/community category |
Organisation chart |
Yearly |
all employees whose salary > £50000, salary band, information about current, future vacant posts, |
Trade union facility time |
Yearly |
- |
Parking account |
Yearly |
- |
Parking spaces |
Yearly |
free spaces in authority area, charged parking spaces provided by authority |
Senior salaries |
Yearly |
- |
Constitution |
Yearly |
- |
Pay multiple |
Yearly |
- |
Fraud |
Yearly |
total investigated, total fraud identified, total monetary value detected and recovered |
Waste contracts |
Only Once |
- |
A five step journey to fully open format
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One star – Available on the web (whatever format) but with an open license
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Two star – As for one star plus available as machine-readable structured data (eg.Excel instead of an image scan of a table)
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Three star – As for two star plus use a non-proprietary format (eg.CSV and XML)
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Four star – All of the above plus use open standards from the World Wide Web Consortium (such as RDF and SPARLQL21)
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Five star – All the above plus links an organisation’s data to others’ data to provide context
The Code was written by Shehla Husain and dated 27th February 2015
2. References
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Local Government Transparency Code 2015, Shehla Husain, Dept for Communities and Local Government 27/02/2015.
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Data and Transparency, Local Government Association
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Data and Standards Training Modules, Local Government Association
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Local Transparency Guidance, Local Government Association
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Data and Standards Training Modules, Local Government Association
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Data and Transparency, Local Government Association
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General Guidelines,Local Government Association
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Spending and Procurement Guidelines,Local Government Association
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Organisation Guidelines,Local Government Association
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Land, Assets, Social Housing and Parking Guidelines,Local Government Association
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Anonymisation Code, Information Commissioner’s Office