What Your Parish Council Must Publish Under the Transparency Code

If your parish council has an annual turnover of £25,000 or less, you are legally required to publish specific financial and governance information online. The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities has been mandatory since 1 April 2015, and it replaced routine external audit with a publish-and-be-accountable approach.

Here is exactly what you must publish, when, and in what format.

The seven mandatory items

The code requires you to publish seven categories of information. All seven have the same annual deadline: no later than 1 July following the end of the accounting year (which runs 1 April to 31 March for parish councils).

1. All items of expenditure above £100

List every individual transaction above £100. For each one, include:

Date the expenditure was incurred
Summary of the purpose
Amount
Non-recoverable VAT included

If you publish a complete list of all expenditure (not just items above £100), that also satisfies this requirement.

2. End-of-year accounts

The signed statement of accounts in the Annual Return format. This must include:

Bank reconciliation
Explanations for any significant variances (the code flags 10–15% as the threshold)
Clarification of any difference between the brought-forward balance and cash plus investments

The accounts must be signed by both the Responsible Financial Officer and the meeting chairman.

3. Annual governance statement

The signed governance statement, also in the Annual Return format. If you answer "no" to any of the governance assertions, you must publish a full explanation of how the council will address the weakness.

Signed by the chairman and the clerk.

4. Internal audit report

The signed internal audit report in the Annual Return format. Any negative responses or items marked "not covered" need explanations — including when the auditor expects to complete the work and plans for the next year.

5. List of councillor responsibilities

This has three components:

Names of all councillors
Committee roles — which councillor sits on which committee, including who chairs each one
External body nominations — which councillors represent the council on outside organisations (village hall committees, local charities, etc.)

6. Public land and building assets

For each asset the council owns or holds in trust:

Description (including size or acreage for land)
Location (address or grid reference)
Owner or custodian
Date of acquisition
Acquisition cost (or proxy value if cost is unknown)
Present use

This covers playing fields, allotments, village greens, bus shelters, war memorials, parish halls — anything the council owns or is responsible for.

7. Minutes, agendas, and meeting papers

This item has different timing from the other six:

Agendas and papers: at least 3 clear days before the meeting (excluding weekends and bank holidays)
Draft minutes: within one month after the meeting

This applies to full council meetings, committee meetings, and sub-committee meetings. Minutes must be signed at the meeting where they are approved (usually the following meeting).

Where to publish

Everything must appear on a website that is publicly accessible and free of charge. This can be:

Your own council website
Your billing authority's website (the district or borough council)

Posting information on a notice board alone does not satisfy the code. The information must be online.

Larger councils: different rules

If your council's turnover exceeds £25,000, you fall under the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 instead. This has additional requirements including quarterly expenditure data, procurement information, and social housing asset data.

The turnover threshold is based on the higher of your gross income or gross expenditure. Check your most recent AGAR — if either figure exceeds £25,000, you fall under the more demanding code.

Data protection and commercial confidentiality

Two concerns clerks frequently raise:

"Can we name councillors and suppliers?" Yes. The code explicitly states that the Data Protection Act does not restrict publishing the names of councillors, members, or senior officers, or naming suppliers under contract. Public accountability requires transparency about who is spending public money and on what.

"What about commercially confidential contracts?" Commercial confidentiality is not an automatic exemption. The code recommends inserting clauses in new contracts that allow for disclosure of data in compliance with transparency requirements. For existing contracts, consider whether the public interest in transparency outweighs the commercial sensitivity.

The inspection period

Original documents — books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers, and receipts — do not need to be published online. However, they must remain available for inspection during the statutory inspection period (30 working days including the first 10 working days of July). Any local government elector for the council's area can inspect and make copies of these documents.

Compliance checklist

Use this to verify your council meets the Transparency Code requirements each year:

All expenditure items above £100 published individually with date, purpose, amount, and VAT
End-of-year accounts signed and published by 1 July
Annual governance statement signed and published with explanations for any negative assertions
Internal audit report signed and published with explanations for negative responses
Complete list of councillor names, committee roles, and external body nominations published
Land and building asset register published with all required fields
Agendas published 3 clear days before meetings
Draft minutes published within 1 month of each meeting
All information on a publicly accessible, free website

Use the free compliance checklist to self-assess your council against every Transparency Code requirement, and the audit deadline calculator to confirm your key AGAR dates. For what internal auditors check beyond transparency, see our internal audit checklist guide.

What happens if you don't comply

The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 provides the statutory basis for the code. Non-compliance risks complaints to the principal authority and potential intervention. Beyond the legal obligation, councils that fail to publish information promptly face Freedom of Information requests for the same data — responding to individual FOI requests is more time-consuming than publishing proactively.

Sources

This article is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. Check the full Transparency Code text for your council's specific obligations.