Parish Council Website Requirements: What You Must Publish

Last updated 10 October 2026 · By Alex Wood

Parish councils have legal duties about what they publish online. They come from several places (the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities, the accounts and audit rules, the accessibility regulations, the Localism Act 2011 and data protection law), which makes it easy to miss something. This guide brings them together in one checklist.

This guide covers parish and town councils in England; the rules are different in Wales and Scotland. It is a practical summary rather than legal advice. For anything specific to your council, check with your county association of local councils.

Checklist: What to Publish on Your Website

What to publish	Required by	When
Agendas and supporting papers for formal meetings	Transparency Code (turnover up to £25,000)	At least three clear days before the meeting
Draft minutes of formal meetings	Transparency Code	Within one month of the meeting
Every item of expenditure over £100	Transparency Code	Annually, by 1 July after the year end
End of year accounts	Transparency Code	Annually, by 1 July
Annual governance statement	Transparency Code	Annually, by 1 July
Internal audit report	Transparency Code	Annually, by 1 July
Councillors and their responsibilities	Transparency Code	Annually, by 1 July, and kept current
Land and building assets	Transparency Code	Annually, by 1 July
AGAR documents and audit notices	Accounts and audit regulations	Each year, on the dates in your external auditor’s instructions
Councillors’ registers of interests	Localism Act 2011	Kept up to date
Accessibility statement	Public sector accessibility regulations	Linked from every page and reviewed at least once a year
Privacy notice	UK GDPR	Wherever you collect personal data
Publication scheme	Freedom of Information Act 2000	Ongoing

Councils With a Turnover of £25,000 or Less

The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities has been mandatory for these councils since 1 April 2015. Turnover means the higher of your gross income or gross expenditure for the year. The information must be published on a website that anyone can access free of charge. That is usually your own, although the Code also allows publication on your district or unitary council’s website.

Meeting papers

Publish agendas and supporting papers for formal meetings of the council and its committees and sub-committees no later than three clear days before the meeting, and draft minutes within one month of the meeting. The Code asks for agendas to be as full and informative as possible.

Annual information

The following must be published each year, no later than 1 July after the end of the financial year:

• Expenditure over £100: every individual item, with the date, a summary of the purpose, the amount and any VAT that cannot be recovered. Invoices do not need to be published, but must be available for inspection
• End of year accounts: in the annual return (AGAR) format, signed by the Responsible Financial Officer and the chair, with the bank reconciliation and an explanation of any significant variances
• Annual governance statement: signed by the chair and the clerk, explaining any “No” answers and how weaknesses will be addressed
• Internal audit report: signed by the internal auditor, with the same explanations
• Councillors and their responsibilities: every councillor, their committee memberships, whether they are chair or vice-chair, and any representation on other local public bodies
• Land and building assets: a description of each (including its size), its location, owner, date acquired if known, cost or a proxy value, and current use

If you find a mistake after publishing, publish the corrected information and make clear what has changed.

The Annual Audit: All Councils

Every parish council completes an Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) and publishes audit documents on its website each year. These include the notice of the period for the exercise of public rights, when residents can inspect the accounts, and the approved sections of the AGAR. Councils with a turnover of £25,000 or less can usually certify themselves exempt from a limited assurance review and publish the Certificate of Exemption with their AGAR documents. Larger councils publish the external auditor’s report and the notice of conclusion of audit once the review is complete. The Practitioners’ Guide and your external auditor’s instructions set out exactly which documents to publish, and by when, each year.

Councils With a Turnover Above £25,000

The Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities does not apply, but many larger councils still publish the same information as good practice: residents expect it, and it answers many Freedom of Information requests before they are made. Councils with a turnover above £200,000 should also look at the Local Government Transparency Code 2015, which sets out what larger authorities are expected to publish.

Councillors’ Registers of Interests

Under the Localism Act 2011, the monitoring officer at your district or unitary council keeps the register of interests for parish councillors and publishes it on that council’s website. If your parish council has a website, it must also publish its councillors’ registers on its own site. Linking each register from the councillor’s page makes them easy to find. Remember to update them when interests change and when new councillors are elected or co-opted.

Accessibility

Your website must meet the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standard and publish an accessibility statement, linked from every page and reviewed at least once a year. Documents published from 23 September 2018 onwards need to be accessible too, unless an exemption applies. Read more about accessible council websites and our complete guide to the public sector accessibility regulations.

Privacy, Cookies and Freedom of Information

Wherever your website collects personal data, such as through a contact form, a newsletter sign-up or an allotment application, UK GDPR requires you to tell people how their data will be used, usually through a privacy notice linked from the form. If your website uses analytics or other non-essential cookies, you also need visitors’ consent under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, every public authority must adopt and maintain a publication scheme. The Information Commissioner’s Office publishes a model scheme and a definition document for parish councils describing the information it expects to be available. Much of it is easiest to provide on your website.

Good Practice Beyond the Legal Minimum

• Standing orders, financial regulations and the code of conduct
• Policies, such as complaints, grants, and equality and diversity
• The budget and precept for the current year
• Dates of meetings for the year ahead
• The clerk’s contact details and office hours
• Planning applications and the council’s responses
• Vacancies, and election and co-option notices
• Newsletters, consultations and your emergency or community resilience plan

If you are working towards the Local Council Award Scheme, its criteria include specific items to publish online, so check the current criteria with your county association.

Organising It All on Your Website

• Group statutory information in one clearly labelled section, such as “Council information” or “Finance and governance”
• Organise meeting papers by committee and year, with the next meeting easy to find
• Use a consistent naming pattern for documents, such as “Full Council minutes 12 March 2026”
• Publish summaries and everyday information as web pages rather than PDFs where you can
• Add a “last updated” date to pages that change each year, so residents know they are current

Moving to a new website is a good moment to check that everything on this list is in place. When we build a council website, we migrate your meetings archive and documents as part of the project. See our parish council websites, or request a quotation.