Civic Scrutiny https://www.civic-scrutiny.com/feed.xml Civic Scrutiny follows the paper trail through local government: the accounts, minutes, registers and FOI responses councils publish and almost nobody reads. Every claim cites a primary document a reader can open. http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification python-feedgen en-gb Sat, 05 Sep 2026 14:15:16 +0000 Your Council Publishes Its Secrets Every Year. This Site Exists Because Almost Nobody Reads Them. https://www.civic-scrutiny.com/2026-updates/what-civic-scrutiny-reads.html Civic Scrutiny reads the primary documents of local government: statements of accounts, committee minutes, registers of interests, contract awards and FOI responses. This launch piece sets out the method: claims cite documents rather than news coverage, criticism goes to the named body for reply before publication, and corrections are logged publicly. Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

In short. Councils are required by law to publish far more than most residents realise. This site reads those documents and reports what is in them. Every factual claim cites the document itself, not coverage of it; anything critical goes to the body concerned for reply before publication; and mistakes are recorded in a public corrections log.

Local government runs on documents that are public by law and unread in practice. The Local Government Transparency Code requires councils in England to publish spending over 500 pounds, contracts, land holdings and senior salaries [1]. Committee meetings have been open to the press and public since 1960 [2]. The Freedom of Information Act covers every council function beyond a short list of exemptions [3]. The paper trail exists. What is missing is readers.

The method, written down so it can be held against us

Claims cite documents, not coverage of documents. A figure on this site comes with a reference to the account, the minute, the register entry or the FOI response it appears in, so you can open the same page we did. Where the only available source is secondary, the piece says so plainly.

Criticism travels to its subject before it travels to you. Before anything critical of a named body or decision-maker is published, the specific claims go to that body for response, and the piece records what came back, including silence. Officers below decision-making level are described by role, not name.

Fact and comment stay visibly separate. What a document says is reported as fact with the document attached. What we make of it is written so you can tell it is a judgement. The build system enforces this mechanically: an evaluative claim without a citation in the same sentence stops the article from publishing at all.

Corrections are public. Errors get fixed in place and recorded in the corrections log, permanently. A scrutiny site that quietly edits its own record has no business scrutinising anyone else's.

What gets covered

Spending and accounts, planning decisions, meeting agendas and what actually happened to them, registers of interests, and what FOI responses reveal. The site is self-funded, carries no advertising, and takes no council money.

Sources

  1. Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, "Local government transparency code 2015" (the publication duties on English local authorities). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-transparency-code-2015
  2. Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 (the right of press and public to attend meetings). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/8-9/67
  3. Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the general right of access to information held by public authorities). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents
]]> https://www.civic-scrutiny.com/2026-updates/what-civic-scrutiny-reads.html Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:50:00 +0000 For Thirty Working Days a Year, You May Inspect the Invoices Behind Your Council Accounts. Most Councils Never See a Single Request. https://www.civic-scrutiny.com/2026-updates/inspect-council-accounts-rights.html Under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, local electors in England have the right to inspect their council's accounting records, books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts during an annual thirty working day inspection period, and to question the auditor. This explainer covers what the right includes, where the inspection notice is published, and what this site will be doing with it. Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

In short. Once a year, for thirty working days, any person interested may inspect a council's accounting records and the documents behind them, and local electors may put questions to the auditor. The window is announced on each council's website as the "public inspection period". This site will be using it, and this piece explains how you can too.

The right is statutory, not a courtesy. The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 gives any persons interested the right to inspect a council's accounting records for the financial year, together with the books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts relating to them [1]. The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 set the machinery: the council must make its accounts available for a single period of thirty working days and must publish notice of when that period runs [2].

The document reference. Sections 26 and 27 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 carry the inspection right and the right to question the auditor; regulations 14 and 15 of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 set the thirty working day period and the notice requirement [1] [2].

What it gets you that FOI does not. A Freedom of Information request asks the council to find and send information, with exemptions and a twenty working day clock [3]. The inspection right works the other way: during the window you inspect the underlying records themselves, including the invoices and contracts behind the summary figures in the published statement of accounts. The National Audit Office guide for electors sets out both rights side by side [4].

There are limits, and they belong in this piece. Personal information is protected, and commercial confidentiality is regularly asserted over contract terms; the guide describes what can and cannot be withheld [4]. Inspection is also not investigation: what you get is the record as kept, and making sense of it is the work. That work is what this site is for.

What happens next here. When councils covered by this site publish their next inspection notices, the dates will be reported in advance, the inspections will happen, and what the underlying records show will be written up with the document references attached.

Sources

  1. Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, sections 26 and 27 (inspection of documents; right to make objections at audit). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/2/contents
  2. Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, regulations 14 and 15 (the thirty working day inspection period and the public notice requirement). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/234/contents
  3. Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the request-based access route and its time limits). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents
  4. National Audit Office, "Local authority accounts: a guide to your rights" (the plain-English guide to the inspection and objection rights). https://www.nao.org.uk/other-work/local-authority-accounts-a-guide-to-your-rights/
]]> https://www.civic-scrutiny.com/2026-updates/inspect-council-accounts-rights.html Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:52:00 +0000 The Corrections Log. Every Error This Site Has Published, and What Was Done About It. https://www.civic-scrutiny.com/2026-updates/corrections-log.html The public corrections log for Civic Scrutiny. Substantive errors are corrected in the article and recorded here permanently with the date, the original wording, the correction, and how the error occurred. This page is linked from every article on the site.

In short. This page records every substantive error the site publishes: the date, what was wrong, the corrected wording, and how it happened. Entries are never removed. Spelling and formatting fixes are not logged; anything that changes a fact, a figure or a characterisation is.

The policy. When an error is found, the article is corrected in place with a dated note, and an entry is added here. If the error was material to the piece's conclusion, the correction is also flagged at the top of the article itself. To report an error, use the contact address in the site footer; reports are acknowledged and the outcome is recorded here whichever way it goes.

The log

No corrections yet. The site launched on 5 September 2026; this line will be replaced by the first entry.

]]> https://www.civic-scrutiny.com/2026-updates/corrections-log.html Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:53:00 +0000