Transparency code policy

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Background

As part of the Government’s drive on improving transparency and accountability, the Department for Communities and Local Government published the ‘Local Government Transparency Code 2015’ to allow greater and easier access to data. The purpose was to make it easier for local people to contribute to the local decision-making process and help shape public services. This Code requires local authorities to publish certain sets of data in specific timeframes.

The Code sets out the compliance standards, requirements and confirmations for 14 areas of information that must be published within specific timeframes. 

2.   Purpose

Reading Borough Council is committed to open data and transparency. Open data means making the non-personal datasets we publish on our website available to everyone in a format that can be reused.

Anyone can use our published datasets. Customers do not have to apply or ask for permission to use data sets.

The open data currently available from the Council on our website is listed in this document. This procedure sets out what Reading Borough Council will publish, the frequency the data will be published, the Assistant Director (AD)/services area that own the data and the monitoring process.

2.1 Prior Years Data

For some data categories available on the Council’s website, there is an incomplete data set.  This arose when the pages were not monitored correctly, and data was not updated in a timely way.  The Council considers it a disproportionate use of resources to track back and provide this historic data at this point.  If individual requestors are interested in historic data, then the Council can provide it through a Freedom of Information Act request (if that is logistically feasible).  If data is retrieved in this way consideration will be given to publishing it retrospectively on the Transparency pages.  Otherwise, the council acknowledges that some of the data sets will remain incomplete. 

3.   Scope

This is policy applies to all data as required under the Transparency Code held by Reading Borough Council. The procedure set out is to be followed by all service areas listed in this policy and with regards to publishing and monitoring of this data. We aim to be 100% compliant with the Code. The specific AD is responsible for keeping this data updated as per the requirements of the Code, that is either quarterly or annually. The Information Governance Team will monitor compliance quarterly and annually as appropriate.  The list of service areas and the data owners (Assistant Directors) are at point 6 of this document.

4.   Legislation

  1. The Council is bound by all relevant UK and European legislation.
  2. The Local Government (Transparency Requirements) (England) Regulations 2015

5.   Information Required to comply with the code

5.1 Information that must be published quarterly and the information owners are listed below:

5.1.1 Expenditure exceeding £500, stating the following:

  • Types of expenditure
  • Summary of the purpose of expenditure
  • VAT cannot be recovered
  • Merchant category

This data is owned by the Director of Finance and includes the amounts spent using Purchasing Cards held by RBC.

5.1.2 Government procurement card transactions

Reading Borough Council do not use Government Procurement Cards. In the event this change in the future the following would be required.

  • Every transaction on a Government Procurement Card.
  • For each transaction, the following details must be published, date of the transaction, local authority department which incurred the expenditure, beneficiary, amount, Value Added Tax that cannot be recovered, summary of the purpose of the expenditure, and merchant category (e.g. computers, software etc)

5.1.3 Procurement information – This data is owned by Assistant Director for Procurement & Contracts

  • Publish details of any contract, commissioned activity, purchase order, framework agreement and any other legally enforceable agreement with a value that exceeds £5,000.
  • For each contract, the following details must be published: reference number, title of agreement, local authority department responsible, description of the goods and/or services being provided, supplier name and details, sum to be paid over the length of the contract or the estimated annual spending or budget for the contract, Value Added Tax that cannot be recovered, start, end and review dates, whether or not the contract was the result of an invitation to quote or a published invitation to tender, and whether or not the supplier is a small or medium sized enterprise and/or a voluntary or community sector organisation and where it is and we should provide the relevant registration number

5.2   Information that must be published annually.

5.2.1 The information that must be published annually and the information owners are listed below:

Local Authority Land – This data is owned by Assistant Director of Assets & Property        Management

Social Housing Assets – This data is owned by the Assistant Director of Housing & Communities.

Grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations – This data is owned by Assistant Director for Policy, Performance & Customer Services.

Organisation chart – This data is owned by the Assistant Director of HR & Organisation Development.

Trade union facility time – This data is owned by Assistant Director of HR & Organisational Development.

Senior staff salaries – This data is owned by Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development.

a) Local authorities must publish, the number of employees whose remuneration in that year was at least £50,000 in brackets of £5,000,

b) Details of remuneration and job title of certain senior employees whose salary is at least £50,000, and,

c) employees whose salaries are £150,000 or more must also be identified by name

 Pay multiple – This data is owned by Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development.

Local authorities must, under this Code, 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.

  • Cover all elements of remuneration that can be valued (e.g. all taxable earnings for the given year, including base salary, variable pay, bonuses, allowances and the cash value of any benefits-in-kind),
  • 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, and, c/ exclude changes in pension benefits, which due to their variety and complexity cannot be accurately included in a pay multiple disclosure.

Constitution – this data is owned by Assistant Director for Legal & Democratic Services

Parking account – this data is owned by Assistant Director for Assistant Director of Planning, Transport & Regulatory Services.

Parking spaces – this data is owned by Assistant Director of Planning, Transport & Regulatory Services

Fraud – This data is owned by the Director of Finance.

Local authorities must publish the following information about their counter fraud work:

              a) number of occasions they use powers under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (Power to Require Information) (England) Regulations 2014, or similar powers.

              b) total number (absolute and full time equivalent) of employees undertaking investigations and prosecutions of fraud.

              c) total number (absolute and full time equivalent) of professionally accredited counter fraud specialists.

             d) total amount spent by the authority on the investigation and prosecution of fraud, and.

             e) total number of fraud cases investigated.

6     Details for the data owners

The following data owners are responsible for ensuring the up-to-date information is published on the Council’s website in accordance with this policy. The data owners must contact the Council’s Web Team to get the data updated.

Service Area Financial Services
Director of Finance – Darren Carter

Service Area: Procurements and Contracts
Assistant Director for Procurement & Contracts
Jonathan Hopkins

Service Area: Asset Management
Assistant Director of Assets & Property Management
Charan Dhillon

Service Area: Housing Property Services
Interim Assistant Director of Housing & Communities
John Knight

Service Area: Human Resources
Assistant Director for HR and Organisational Development
Kathryn Cook

Service Area: Data Intelligence & Policy
Gavin Handford, Assistant Director for Policy, Performance & Customer Services

Service Area: Network & Parking Services, Transport
Assistant Director of Planning, Transport & Regulatory Services
James Crosbie

Service Area: Legal & Democratic Services
Assistant Director for Legal & Democratic Services
Michael Graham

Service Area – Internal Audit
Director of Finance – Darren Carter

6.1 Audit of the data/compliance with the Transparency Code

The Information Governance Team will review the data on the Council’s website quarterly and annually to ensure compliance.

Where there is failure to comply, the Information Governance Team will notify the Assistant Director of the service that own the data, allowing them two weeks to update the data on the website. The Information Governance Team will hold the list of AD’s with their contact details.

Failure to comply will be reported to the Information Governance Board for escalation to the Council’s Corporate Management Team.

Quarterly monitoring progress reports will be reported to the Information Governance Board and Audit & Governance Committee.

7     Further Information

Last updated on 07/05/2024