Transparency and accountability

Information available for re-use

​The data on this page are published under the Open Government Licence and are available for you to re-use as you like, including for commercial and research activities. Where possible and relevant, we have made this data available in both a 'human-readable' format (such as PDF) and an open, 'machine-readable' format that is not dependent on any specific software (such as CSV or XML).

Spending and procurement

• Payments to suppliers over £500: The reports list payments of £500 or over (exclusive of VAT) made to suppliers. They are prepared and published 30 days after the end of each month, and we hold the last 2 years on our website.
• Government procurement card transactions: This register includes details of all of our government procurement card transactions and is updated quarterly.
• Invitations to tender: We use the North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) OPEN Portal for these, and it includes details of all our invitations to tender for goods and/or services. Access to the information on the portal is free, but you will need to register.
• Contracts Register: The register lists all contracts, commissioned activity, purchase orders, framework agreements and other legally enforceable agreements, including waste collection contracts, that exceed £5,000. It is updated quarterly.
• Grants to voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE): This register includes grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.

Organisational information

• Organisational structure: We provide the majority of local authority services in County Durham. Find out more information about us and the services we deliver.
• Trade Union Facility Time: Details of the number of union representatives, and includes the names of trade unions and a basic estimate of spending on them. It is updated annually.
• Senior staff salaries: Details on the salaries of our senior staff.
• Pay policy and pay multiple: The pay multiple is the ratio between the highest paid salary and the median salary of the whole of our workforce. Our pay policy statement is prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 and is published annually.
• Gender pay gap: Details the pay gap between our male and female employees.
• Public sector apprenticeship target: Details how we are meeting the public sector apprenticeship target
• Slavery and human trafficking statement (2023-2024) : Details our Slavery and human trafficking statement
• Business rates data: Details of our most frequently requested business rates data.

Land and buildings

• Council owned land and buildings: This page contains a list of all council owned land and buildings. 

Parking information

• Civil Parking Enforcement Annual Report: This report contains information about the breakdown of income and expenditure on our parking account. Income includes details of revenues collected, including parking tickets, and how we have spent any surplus. It also includes the number/estimated number of marked out parking spaces and spaces which are not marked out as individual bays.

Fraud

• Fighting fraud and corruption: Information including the number of council staff undertaking fraud investigations, amounts spent by us and the number of fraud cases investigated.

Constitution  

• Constitution of the council: Our constitution sets out how we operate, how decisions are made and the rules and procedures we follow to ensure our work is efficient and transparent and that we are accountable to local people.

Local government transparency code 2015

Publishing this information meets the requirements of the Gov.uk: local government transparency code 2015.