Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the extent to which local authorities are meeting their obligations under the Local Government Transparency Code to publish up to date information.

The purpose of the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 (the Code) is to make it easier for the public to directly hold their councils to account, not as a means for central government to check up on local authorities. Therefore, the government does not monitor compliance with the Code.

If there were concerns about a local authorities’ compliance with the Code, a complaint could be made to the local authority’s Monitoring Officer, or via their complaints procedure. It is possible to make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman where the usual complaints procedures have been exhausted, or to make a Freedom of Information request if local authorities continue to fail in fulfilling their duties under the Code.