From a Government webpage:
Councils have been put on a week’s notice to get their books open for public scrutiny, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said today, 25 January 2011.
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Last June, Mr Pickles set a deadline for councils to become more transparent by publishing all of their spending data over ?500 online in accessible formats, at the end of January 2011.
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Today the Local Government Secretary is starting the final week countdown for councils to show their residents that they are ready to be open and transparent about how they spend taxpayers’ money.
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Over 210 councils across the country have put some information online, but this leaves almost 150 still to act. A timeline on the Department’s website shows who has put their data online while making it crystal clear which councils are leaving it to the eleventh hour.
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A draft code of practice will be published shortly to help councils get on track.
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Councils are expected to put details of senior pay, councillor expenses, tenders and contracts, meetings, and frontline service data into the open so that ‘armchair auditors’ can clearly see the decisions being made on their behalf by the council in due course.
Rochford District Council is one of the 210 councils who have put the data online – though it isn’t easy to find. If you search for “spending” for example, nothing comes up….
However the spending can be found here.