What parish councils must publish online

Last reviewed 23 October 2026. General information for councils in England, not legal advice. This is not a compliance checklist and it is not a substitute for reading the official sources or taking advice for your council.

Clerks are often asked what has to go on the website. The answer depends on the size of the council. Some duties are about notices in the parish or inspection of paper records, not a website. This guide sets out the main official rules in England, with links to legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK.

In short

  • If annual turnover is £25,000 or less, the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities lists what to put on a free public website. Regulations make that a legal duty.
  • Notice of a parish council meeting still comes from the Local Government Act 1972: at least three clear days’ notice of the time and place, fixed in a conspicuous place in the parish, plus a summons to members. That is not, by itself, a website duty.
  • Those smaller authorities should also publish draft minutes of formal meetings online within one month, and agendas and papers at least three clear days before the meeting.
  • If the council has a website, certain officer decisions must go on it under the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014.
  • The 2018 accessibility regulations cover the website and the documents on it, including an accessibility statement.

Who this is for

This guide is for clerks of parish and town councils in England. The official sources named here apply in England. Different rules apply in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

What you must put on a website depends on turnover and on whether the council has a website at all. The sections below say who each rule applies to. If a duty is about a notice in the parish or inspection of a paper record, this guide says so. It does not treat those as website duties.

The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities

The Transparency code for smaller authorities applies to parish councils, internal drainage boards, charter trustees and port health authorities in England “with an annual turnover not exceeding £25,000”. Turnover is “the higher of an authority’s gross income for the year and its gross expenditure for the year”. Where accounts are kept on a receipts and payments basis, read those words as receipts and payments.

The Code is given legal force by the Smaller Authorities (Transparency Requirements) (England) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/494). Regulation 2 says an authority to which the Code applies “must publish the information specified in the Code in the manner and form and on the occasions specified in the Code”.

The Code says the information “must be published on a website which is publicly accessible free of charge”. That can be the council’s own website or, for example, the website of the billing authority in its area.

If turnover is over £25,000, this Code does not apply. A different document, the Local Government Transparency Code 2015, includes in its definition of “local authority” a parish council whose gross annual income or expenditure (whichever is higher) exceeds £200,000. That Code lists different information. This guide does not set out that list. Parish councils between those two figures are not named in either Code.

What the smaller authorities Code lists

Part 2 of the Code says smaller authorities should publish:

  • all items of expenditure above £100
  • end of year accounts
  • the annual governance statement
  • the internal audit report
  • a list of councillor or member responsibilities
  • details of public land and building assets
  • minutes, agendas and meeting papers of formal meetings

Items published once a year

Those annual items must be published “not less than annually and not later than 1 July in the year immediately following the accounting year to which it relates”.

For each item of expenditure above £100 the Code requires the date it was incurred, a summary of the purpose, the amount, and any Value Added Tax that cannot be recovered. The threshold should, where possible, be the net amount excluding recoverable VAT. Copies of invoices and similar papers do not need to be published, but should remain available for inspection.

End of year accounts means the signed statement of accounts in the Annual Return format, with a bank reconciliation, an explanation of significant variances, and an explanation of any difference between balances carried forward and total cash and short-term investments, if that applies.

The annual governance statement and the internal audit report should also follow the Annual Return format. Negative answers, and “not covered” answers on the internal audit report, should be explained, including how weaknesses will be addressed.

The list of councillor or member responsibilities should include the names of all councillors or members, committee or board membership and function (if chair or vice-chair), and representation on external local public bodies where the person is nominated to represent the authority.

Parish councils should publish details of all public land and building assets. For each asset the Code asks for a description (including size or acreage), location, owner or custodian, date of acquisition if known, cost of acquisition or a proxy value, and present use. The full asset register may be published, or an edited version that shows only those assets.

Agendas, papers and draft minutes

These are published more often than once a year. The Code says smaller authorities should publish:

  • draft minutes from all formal meetings — “full council or board, committee and sub-committee meetings” — “not later than one month after the meeting has taken place”
  • meeting agendas, “which are as full and informative as possible”, and associated meeting papers, “not later than three clear days before the meeting to which they relate is taking place”

That website timetable sits alongside the older duty to give public notice of the meeting in the parish, which is not a website duty.

Public notice of meetings and agendas

The Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12, paragraph 10 deals with parish council meetings. At least three clear days before a meeting:

  • notice of the time and place “shall be fixed in some conspicuous place in the parish”
  • if members of the council called the meeting, that notice must be signed by them and must specify the business
  • a summons to attend, specifying the business and certified by the proper officer, must be sent to every member

The summons may be left at or posted to the member’s usual residence, or sent electronically to an address the member has consented to use. Paragraph 10 does not require the notice or the agenda to be published on a website.

For councils to which the Transparency Code applies, the Code adds a separate website step: publish the agenda and papers at least three clear days before the meeting. Doing one of those things does not replace the other.

This guide does not define “clear days” beyond the words in the Act and the Code. Check your standing orders, and ask your county association if you are unsure how to count the days for a particular meeting.

Publishing minutes

Three different rules often get mixed together.

First, the formal record. Schedule 12, paragraph 41 says minutes “shall be signed at the same or next suitable meeting of the authority by the person presiding”. They may be entered in a book or recorded on consecutively numbered loose leaves. That paragraph is about the signed record. It does not say how a copy must be published online.

Second, inspection. Section 228 of the same Act says the minutes of a parish council “shall be open to the inspection of any local government elector for the area” of the council, and that the elector may make a copy or extract. Documents that the section directs to be open to inspection must be open “at all reasonable hours” and, unless another enactment says otherwise, without payment. That is an inspection right. It is not a duty to put minutes on a website.

Third, the website. For councils with turnover of £25,000 or less, the Transparency Code says draft minutes of formal meetings should be published online within one month of the meeting. The Code also says those minutes “should be signed either at the meeting they were taken or at the next meeting”.

A common practical approach, which is not a legal requirement in itself, is to keep the signed paper (or signed loose-leaf) minutes as the formal record, publish the same text online from the original Word file, and make the signed original available for inspection. Our guide to accessible minutes explains why a scan of the signed copy is a problem for readers who use assistive technology.

Officer decisions and the 2014 Openness Regulations

The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2095) do two different jobs. Only one of them is a duty to publish something on the council’s website.

The first job is about meetings. The Regulations amend the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 so that, while a parish council meeting is open to the public, a person attending is to be permitted to report on it — including filming, photographing or making an audio recording — and may publish that report, including on the internet. That is a right for people who attend. It is not a duty on the council to publish a recording.

The second job is about decisions delegated to officers. Parish councils are “relevant local government bodies” for this part. Regulation 7 requires a written record of a decision that would otherwise have been taken by the council, a committee or a sub-committee, but has been delegated to an officer:

  • under a specific express authorisation, or
  • under a general authorisation, where the effect is to grant a permission or licence, affect the rights of an individual, or award a contract or incur expenditure which materially affects the council’s financial position

The record must be produced as soon as reasonably practicable. It must include the date, the decision and the reasons, any alternative options considered and rejected, and — where the decision was under a specific express authorisation — the names of any members who declared a conflict of interest.

Regulation 8 says the written record, together with any background papers, must as soon as reasonably practicable be made available for inspection at the council’s offices, “on the website of the relevant local government body, if it has one”, and by any other means the council considers appropriate. The written record must be kept available for six years from the date of the decision. Background papers must be kept available for four years.

If the council has no website, regulation 8 does not create one. The inspection duty at the offices still applies.

Accounts and the annual return on the website

Separately from the Transparency Code, the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/234) require a relevant authority to publish certain documents “which must include publication on the authority’s website”.

Regulation 15 requires the responsible financial officer to publish the statement of accounts (with a signed declaration about its unaudited or exempt status), the annual governance statement, and a statement setting out the period for the exercise of public rights and how to inspect the records. For a Category 2 authority — a smaller authority that has not chosen a full audit — that period must include the first 10 working days of July after the year end.

If a Category 2 authority does not have its own website, regulation 2(5) says publication on any website is enough, provided the information is accessible without registration or payment.

After the public-rights period, a Category 2 authority that is not exempt must, by 30 September, publish the statement of accounts (with any auditor certificate or opinion) and the approved annual governance statement, and keep them available for at least five years (regulation 13). It must also publish a notice that the audit has concluded (regulation 16). Those two follow-up duties do not apply to a Category 2 authority with exempt status, but an exempt authority must still keep the statement of accounts that was published under regulation 15 available for at least five years.

The Transparency Code’s annual list (accounts, governance statement, internal audit report, by 1 July) overlaps with this for councils with turnover of £25,000 or less. The Accounts and Audit website duties apply more widely than that Code.

The 2018 accessibility regulations and the statement

Whatever you publish, the website itself has to meet the accessibility rules. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/952) came into force on 23 September 2018. GOV.UK guidance says they apply to public sector bodies, including “central government and local government organisations”. Parish and town councils are local government. Small councils are not on the list of bodies that are exempt or partly exempt.

The regulations say public sector bodies must make websites “perceivable, operable, understandable and robust” and publish an accessibility statement. GOV.UK says a website meets the legal requirements if it meets the WCAG 2.2 AA standard and has that statement. GOV.UK is also clear that if you do not publish a statement, “you will not meet the accessibility regulations, even if your website or mobile app meets the technical standard”.

Regulation 8 requires the statement to follow the model accessibility statement and to be kept under regular review. For a website it must be in an accessible format and published on the website. It must explain which parts of the content are not accessible and why, describe any accessible alternatives, give a way for someone to report a problem or ask for information, and link to the enforcement procedure. GOV.UK publishes the model accessibility statement and says to review the statement at least once a year. Our guide to accessibility statements covers what to include. The free statement generator builds a statement from that model in your browser.

Documents on the website are part of that duty. Regulation 4 says the regulations do not apply to office file formats published before 23 September 2018, unless the content is needed for active administrative processes. GOV.UK puts that in plainer words: you do not need to fix “PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 — unless users need them to use a service”. You still need to explain the exemption in the statement. Current agendas and minutes are not unused archive files. Our guide to scanned PDF agendas explains what that means in practice.

GOV.UK’s Publishing accessible documents guidance says HTML is “the most accessible format for publishing documents” and should be the first choice. It says not to scan documents and convert them to PDF, because users cannot search the content and a screen reader will not read it.

Using ClerkPages

ClerkPages turns the Word agendas and minutes you already write — and text-based PDFs — into accessible HTML pages. Each document gets a permanent address you can link from your existing council website. £79 a year per council, excluding VAT.

It does not publish your expenditure list, asset register, annual return or accessibility statement for you. It will not convert a scan or image-only PDF. Complex layouts may not convert perfectly. It is not legal advice and it is not a compliance guarantee. Check the page before you share the link. Your council remains responsible for its website and its papers.

Subscribe — £79 a year See an example

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