Transparency

About the Transparency Code

The government has published ‘The Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency’ which effectively recommends parish councils which have a gross annual income or expenditure (whichever is the higher) of a least £200,000 to publish ‘Public Data’.

The Government has implemented this Code of Practice for local authorities to provide greater transparency of public bodies, which is at the heart of their mandate to enable greater democratic accountability over how council tax and public money is spent. However, Public Data does not include personal information as this would contravene the Data Protection Act 2018. 

In accordance with the Code of Recommended Practice and general good practice, Shinfield Parish Council makes the following information available:

Expenditure exceeding £500

Local authorities must publish details of each individual item of expenditure that exceeds £500. This includes items of expenditure, consistent with Local Government Association guidance. This must be published at least quarterly. 

Shinfield Parish Council publishes information on items exceeding £500 monthly – see Section 2 below. 

Government Procurement Card Transactions

Local authorities must publish details of every transaction on a Government Procurement Card. This must be published quarterly.

The Parish Council does not use a government procurement card as defined by the code. 

A full list of all credit card transactions can be found in monthly Full Council agenda packs, click here

Procurement Information

Publish details of every invitation to tender for contracts to provide goods and/or services with a value that exceeds £5,000. 

Publish details of any contract, commissioned activity, purchase order, framework agreement and any other legally enforceable agreement with a value that exceeds £5,000. This must be published quarterly. 

Contracts

A list of current contracts and their annual value can be found here Click here

Local Authority Land

Local authorities must publish details of all land and building assets. This must be published annually.

Click here for details of our assets

Map of assets e.g. bins and street lamps owned by the council – coming soon as currently being reviewed May 2026. 

Grants to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Organisations

Publish details of all grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations. 

The Parish Council publishes details of all grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.

Click here for our Grants webpage

Organisation Chart

Publish an organisation chart covering staff in the top three levels of the organisation. This must be published annually.

The Parish Council currently employs 24 members of staff. Click here for our full staff structure

Trade Union Facility Time

This must be published annually.

The Parish Council does not have any Trade Union representatives.

Parking Account

Local authorities must publish on their website, or place a link on their website to this data if published elsewhere: a breakdown of income and expenditure on the authority’s parking account, and a breakdown of how the authority has spent a surplus on its parking account. This must be published annually.

The Parish Council does not receive any income for parking. WBC operates Mere Oak Park & Ride and the School Green Car Park.

Parking Spaces

Local authorities must publish the number of marked out controlled on and off-street parking spaces within their area, or an estimate of the number of spaces where controlled parking space is not marked out in individual parking bays or spaces. This must be published annually.

This section relates to WBC, click here to access the information.  

The Parish Council provides parking spaces at its venues – click here

Senior Salaries

The Parish Council is required to publish details of any senior employees (including job descriptions, responsibilities, budgets, and number of staff) earning over £58,200 per annum. This must be published annually.

The Parish Council has no employees that earn over £58,200pa.

The Council has one employee within the pay bracket £50,000-54,999.

Pay Multiple

Publish the pay multiple on their website defined as the ratio between the highest 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 authorities workforce. This must be published annually.

For the Parish Council the median earnings figure is £24,294 (50% of staff earn less of this figure, 50% earn more than this figure).

Constitution

Local authorities must publish their Constitution on their website. This must be published annually. See Section 5

The Parish Council sets out what it can and cannot do in it’s Standing Orders which can be downloaded from the Polices and Procedures page of our website.

Fraud

New updated policy coming Aug 2026 once adopted by Full Council. 

The Council has a system of internal control and checks on systems to ensure that the risk of fraud is reduced. There are no incidents of fraud to publish.

Waste Contracts

Local authorities must publish details of their existing waste collection contracts at the point they first publish quarterly contract information. This is a one-off publication.

This relates to the collection of household waste. Wokingham Borough Council are responsible for all household waste. Click here to be redirected.

Committee Attendance

For April 2024-March 2025 – click here

For April 2025-March 2026 – click here