Public spending, as published
Government spending, line by line
A record of the payment files public bodies release. Councils, police bodies, fire authorities and government departments in England publish payments above a threshold. Here, the record stays with the figure: what was published, what is held and where it came from.
Start with a place
Open a spending record
Enter a postcode to see the local bodies that publish spending for that place.
The postcode is sent to postcodes.io to get the council area. It is not stored here and nothing else is done with it.
Or go straight to a named body
- 333
- body pages in the record
- 251
- published annual totals
- Mar 2026
- latest payment month held
No estimated figures. No body-to-body league table. The qualification sits beside the number it qualifies.
19 bodies with a payment in the last 30 days
Recent payments held here
These are the newest payment dates in the files held here, as at 2026-09-26. The list is rebuilt from the files each time the record is refreshed.
See the files held for every bodyPayment dated in the last 30 days
- 2026-09-11 Cambridge Council Open its published spending record
- 2026-09-03 Castle Point Council Open its published spending record
- 2026-09-01 Kingston Upon Thames Council Open its published spending record
Coverage with its limits intact
The record is broad. The figures stay specific.
Every page is for one public body and one published record. That makes it possible to follow a number back to the file behind it. Families are never summed, because each publishes different money under different rules.
| Family | Pages | Published totals |
|---|---|---|
| Councils | 317 | 250 |
| Police | 8 | 1 |
| Fire | 5 | 0 |
| Central government | 3 | 0 |
These are counts of pages, never pounds. They stay inside their family because the bodies publish different money under different rules.
A body without a total is not a body that spends nothing. Its figures have not met this site's reconciliation test, and its page says why.
Beyond the headline
What each body page shows.
The number is only the start. Each body page preserves the detail needed to understand what a published figure can, and cannot, tell you.
What it published
The total it paid out in its most recent complete year, the number of payments behind that total, its largest suppliers and its month by month pattern.
What is held
Every financial year of records held, how much of each year, and whether that year reconciles against the body's own published outturn or budget.
Budget figures
Net revenue expenditure over time, the split by service, where the money came from, a council's own Band D element and its reserves, from the returns it makes to central government. Shown where the body files those returns.
How to read this site
What a total here covers.
A total here is what one body published above its own threshold. It is not all of its spending: wages and payments below that threshold are outside the file.
- No estimated figures.Every number comes from a published file.
- No cross-body ranking.Periods held differ, so a league table would be false.
- No detached caveats.The detail that qualifies a number stays with it.