Open Data (Information Transparency)

You can find some of the data that we publish in a raw format here. It is published in a 'CSV' format, which should make it easier to reuse, compare and analyse the data, as well as PDF format. 'Open data' is the phrase used to refer to the Government's initiative to make information more transparent and widely available.

You can find details of council spending over £500 on the Spending Transparency page.

You can read the council's resonses to Freedom of Information Requests on the Disclosure Log page.

About this service
How do I use it?

About this service

Open data aims to provide publicly the non-personal information which we hold as freely as possible.

Credit card spending
Somerset County Council is taking a lead in publishing the details of its transactions using credit cards.

The cards are routinely used by councils to quickly and easily pay for low priced items and the use of such schemes is encouraged by the Government because of the proven savings in 'time, money and paperwork'.

On occasions, the use of these cards to purchase larger value items or services has been authorised and the cost then recouped by the Authority. For instance, in August 2010 a card was used to book a trip to China for students at the Street Children's Centre. Pupils interested in going to China had to raise the funds for the trip up-front, and then the card was used to pay the £12,294 because this was the most efficient method of paying the travel company. Also, in July 2010 £102 was spent in Pizza Express, Taunton. However, analysis of the data reveals that this was the cost of a focus group session held at the venue, in which both children and adults were invited to contribute to what became an award-winning campaign to help reduce teenage pregnancies.

How do I use it?

You can download any open data we publish under 'information and resources'.

We provide files in CSV or PDF format.

CSV is a simple text format for a database table. It is useful in publishing data, as it is machine readable, and allows for easier reuse and analysis.
PDF is the open standard for sharing documents. It is easy to read or to print. You can download software to read PDF files for free from the Adobe website (external link).

How is our data licensed?

The information on this page is available for reuse under the terms of the Open Government Licence for public sector information (external link). You don't have to ask permission to use this data, but you do have to accept the terms of the Open Government Licence.

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