Open data

We are committed to being open and transparent about how we work, our decision-making processes and the services we provide and follow the GOV.UK - Local government transparency code.

The information below is available on this website and available for re-use.

Open Government Licence

This information is licensed under the National Archives - Open Government Licence.

When you use this information under the Open Government Licence, you should include the following attribution:

• [Open data, Preston City Council, date], licensed under the National Archives - Open Government Licence.

Transparency code

The information below is provided in accordance with the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 (PDF) [1001KB] .

Spending over £250

In our plans and spending section you can find lots of information on our budgets and spending. This also includes a list of our spending over £250.

Government procurement card transactions

We use procurement cards for low value, ad-hoc purchases which cannot be procured from our contracted or preferred suppliers. For details of spending on these cards please visit our  page.

Procurement information

As part of the government's initiative to implement e-procurement, we advertise of our contract opportunities on the The Chest - North West procurement portal.

Officer salaries

We publish full details of all our Senior officers pay.

Council structure

You can find a copy of our department structure on the Council departments page.

Council constitution

The articles of the constitution set out the basic principles that underlie the way the council operates. This can be found on the Council constitution page.

Local authority land

We publish details of all our land and building assets annually on our Business property page.

Brownfield Register

The brownfield land register identifies land suitable for housing to provide up-to-date, good quality and transparent information on local availability.

Details of counter fraud work

For details of counter fraud work carried out by us please see the benefit fraud page.

Planning applications and decisions

To view Planning applications and decisions in the Preston area please visit our Public access section.

Councillor allowances and expenses

Each year we publish a list of what our Councillors are allowed to claim as expenses and what they have actually claimed for that year.

Council minutes and papers

We publish information about the local Councillors for Preston and the committees which make all the major decisions for the council.

You can find the minutes of all our official council meetings in the Browse meetings section.

Business Rates accounts

We provide a list of companies and organisations that are liable for business rates in Preston.

Food hygiene reports for food outlets

Food Standards Agency - Food Hygiene Ratings can help to find recent food safety inspection results of restaurants and take aways in Preston. The food hygiene rating data is available via an application programming interface (API) in XML and JSON formats.

See the Food Standards Agency - UK food hygiene rating data API page for more information.

Job vacancies

All our job vacancies are advertised in our current vacancies section.

Trade unions

• We have 5 trade union representatives (5.0 full time equivalent)
• We have no trade union representatives who devote at least 50% of their time to union duties
• We recognise four trade unions at the council - UNISON, UNITE, GMB Union and ALACE
• The estimated spending on trade unions (estimated proportion of time spent on trade union duties x individual salaries) = £4537.02 per year
• The estimated spending on trade unions as a percentage of the total pay bill is 0.02%

Licensing applications and decisions

You can view details of the following types of licensed premises from our public registers page:

• Pet Shops
• Animal Boarding Establishments
• Street Traders
• Permitted Processes
• Motor Salvage Operators
• Cooling towers
• Register of Personal Licences (Licensing Act 2003)
• Register of Licensed Premises (Licensing Act 2003)
• Register of Gambling Premises (Gambling Act 2005)
• Hackney Carriages, Private Hire Driver and Private Hire Operators

Pay Multiple

The pay multiple is defined as the ratio between the highest taxable earnings for the given year (including base salary, variable pay, bonuses, allowances and the cash value of any benefits in kind) and the median earnings figure of the whole of the authority's workforce.

The ratio is 3.97:1.