Spend over £500 frequently asked questions

The Government's Transparency Agenda

• What is the Government's transparency agenda?
• How is government data being made available?
• What information is Plymouth City Council publishing?
• When will the information be publicly available?
• What is reported?
• Is anything excluded from the report?
• I notice that some items say 'Redacted personal data' what does that mean?
• Is VAT included in the report?
• Why do some fields say 'various'?
• Why are some payments under £500 included?

What is the Government's transparency agenda?

The Government is aiming to bring the operation of government out into the open so that everyone can see whether it is delivering good value for money. This involves publishing government documents online and making public sector data freely available.

How is government data being made available?

The Government is publishing government datasets online in an open format. Anyone is free to re-use the data to create socially useful applications and websites. It is expected that the data will be:

• published in reusable and machine-readable form
• released under an open licence enabling free reuse, including commercial reuse available and easy to find through a single easy to use online access point
• published using open standards and following the recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium

What information is Plymouth City Council publishing?

We understand it's important to residents that they are able to see how council tax payer's money is spent. As part of our commitment to demonstrating value for money and local government transparency, we are publishing details of all our spending over £500.

The following information will be reported:

• monthly reports of payments over £500 will be published on the website, with people able to view payment amounts and to whom the payment has been made.

When will the information be publicly available?

The deadline is 30 days after the end of the previous month.

What is reported?

The report will include goods or services we purchase, payments we make to contractors carrying out work on our behalf and other spend we incur in carrying out our business.

[Back to top]

Is anything excluded from the report?

Yes. In accordance with published guidelines the following items of expenditure are not included:

• salary and wages payments made to staff
• housing benefit payments
• sensitive information which could put vulnerable individuals at risk
• personal information, such as the names of individuals (except where they are a sole trader) receiving payments
• payments made to schools as the money the council receives for schools is passed directly to schools, who manage their own budgets. Any questions about school expenditure must be asked directly to the individual school
• transactions for investment purposes
• commercially sensitive information, where it is not in the public interest to disclose

I notice that some items say 'Redacted personal data' what does that mean?

This means that the figures are included but the details of the payment are not reported, this is in line with existing data access regulations, namely the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act and the Environmental Information Regulations. Certain payments, for example to certain private individuals, or if commercially sensitive, will be redacted (hidden) or exempt from publication.

Generally, any personal information which identifies an individual is excluded from publication or where the publication of the data can harm an individual. For example, payments related to children or vulnerable adults such as foster carers, home carers, etc.

However, there may be cases where it is in the public interest to name the individual to whom payments are made. These would include sole traders, as the individual is trading under his/her name used for business purposes and not private life, and individuals in the public domain as part of their public facing role (ie local members, chief officers etc).

[Back to top]

Is VAT included in the report?

We publish data showing payments made each month that are over £500 including VAT. For payments where we can claim back the VAT, we publish the value excluding the recoverable VAT, therefore some payments shown will be less than £500.

Why do some fields say 'various'?

In some cases the nature of the Council's financial coding means that invoices split across several expenditure areas will display 'various' where no consistent description is possible. This helps to reduce the volume of small transactions under £500.

Why are some payments under £500 included?

Please see the questions entitled Why do some fields say 'various' and Is VAT included in the report?.

[Back to top]