Community Hub can help your community or parish council completely comply with the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities (England) or the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013.
Both the Transparency Code and the Local Government Act require a range of different publications, on a frequent and annual basis, to be published on a publicly accessible website. Guidelines for the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities state:
“The data and information specified in this Code must be published on a website which is publicly accessible free of charge. For example, one way that this requirement could be achieved could be by publishing the date on the local authority’s website for its area or Unitary Authority but this is potentially impracticable.”
The new legislation means that whilst community and parish councils may have previously had a simple, basic, informational website they now need to ensure they have a fully functioning and easily updatable site in place. For many councils this may mean creating a community or parish council website design and developing their own site for the very first time.
If your council is not compliant with the transparency requirements laid out in the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities or the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013 an elector could potentially challenge your council in the courts with a judicial review.
Examples of what your council needs to publish to comply with both the Transparency Code and the Local Government Act are below:
Transparency Code for Smaller
Authorities
- All items of expenditure above £100
- Full end of year accounts
- Annual governance statements
- Internal audit reports
- List of councillor or member responsibilities
- Location of public land and building assets
Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013
- Information on how to contact the council/clerk
- Contact information for councils members
- List of member responsibilities
- Member's party affiliations (if any)
- Minutes of the council's meetings
- Any documents referred to in the minutes
The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities also requires all parish councils to publish all minutes, agendas and papers of formal meetings more frequently. Drafts of these publications must be produced no later than one month after the meeting has taken place or in the case of agendas and papers issued before a meeting, no later than three full days before the meeting takes place.
Parish Councils within England can currently receive funding from the National Association of Local Councils under the Transparency Fund for the creation of a new website for the purpose of complying with the Transparency Code - for more information see the National Association of Local Council's website.
The Community Hub service is a modern, responsive community and parish council website design that is capable of displaying all of the necessary content for both the The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities and Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013 plus much more. For more information about features that the Community Hub web design offers please see our features list.