About this register
What it is
Open Council Hub is an independent public register of external rulings about councils: what ombudsmen, the Information Commissioner, a regulator, a tribunal and the Planning Inspectorate decided. No council runs it. None of those bodies runs it.
It holds 1625 entries about 3 councils.
Councils
| Council | Kind | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| Brighton & Hove City Council | unitary council | 1042 |
| Surrey County Council | county council | 135 |
| Tandridge District Council | district council | 448 |
A council with no entries is new to the hub. Its entries are being added.
Bodies
| Body | Entries | What an entry is | What the hub does not show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman | 425 | An ombudsman ruling on one complaint about the council. | The full decision. The hub quotes the summary and the remedies, with a credit. |
| Housing Ombudsman | 49 | An ombudsman ruling on one complaint from a tenant or a leaseholder of the council. | All source text. The hub shows the findings, and the kind, the amount and the date of each order. |
| Regulator of Social Housing | 2 | A regulatory judgement: a grade for the council as a social landlord. | The full judgement. The hub quotes one sentence, with a credit. |
| Employment Tribunal | 54 | A tribunal case: a claim that a person brought against the council as an employer. | The result, all source text, and every name of a person. |
| Information Commissioner's Office | 146 | A decision notice: the ruling of the Information Commissioner on a complaint about how the council handled a request for information. | The steps and the time limit that a notice orders. The hub quotes the summary, with a credit. |
| Planning Inspectorate | 949 | A case that the Planning Inspectorate decided about a decision or a notice of the council. Most are planning appeals. | Every name of an appellant, an agent or an inspector. An allowed appeal is not a finding of fault. |
A tribunal case has no result in the hub. Many claims are withdrawn or dismissed.
A decision notice can order steps and a time limit. The hub does not list them yet.
An inspector decides a planning appeal afresh. An allowed appeal does not mean that the council was at fault. The hub shows no name of an appellant, an agent or an inspector.
Method
Each line is one entry. It keeps the reference of the body and links to the original.
The folio is this register’s own number for an entry. A folio does not change.
The hub lists the remedies of a ruling only after a check against the source. Until then the line reads “Remedies not yet checked”.
The deadline state of a remedy is worked out when the site is built. Each page that shows a state gives that date.
LGSCO publishes some decision dates one day early. The hub shows each date as LGSCO publishes it, and it allows one extra day before it marks a deadline as passed.
The postcode form sends the postcode to postcodes.io to find the council. The hub does not store it.
Blank cell
An ombudsman ordered a remedy, and the ombudsman publishes no outcome for it. The hub has nothing to enter, so the cell stays blank.
A blank cell says nothing about what the council did.
Dash
No remedy applies, or the hub has not yet checked the ruling. A decision notice, a regulator judgement, a tribunal case and a planning case have no remedies in the hub.
Words used
| The line reads | When |
|---|---|
| Done before the decision | The decision says that the council had already done it. |
| Due 5 February 2026 | The deadline has not passed on the day of the build. |
| Deadline passed 5 February 2026. Outcome not published. | The deadline has passed on the day of the build. |
| No deadline stated | The decision gives no date. |
| The line reads | When |
|---|---|
| Remedies not yet checked | Fault was found. The hub has not yet checked the remedies. |
| Remedies under review | The hub is checking the remedies again. |
| The ombudsman accepted the remedy that the council had already offered. | The ombudsman upheld the complaint and ordered nothing more. |
| The decision has no remedy section. Read the original. | Fault was found, and the decision lists no remedy. |
| The line reads | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Apology | An apology to the person. |
| Payment | A payment to the person. |
| Action for the person | Something else that the council does for the person. |
| Service change | A change to how the council works. |
| Other | A remedy of another kind. |
Limits
The ombudsmen do not publish the outcome of each remedy. The hub cannot show it and does not guess it.
A payment total adds up the amounts that the decisions state, in checked rulings only.
The hub does not publish a count of remedies. One decision can put several actions in one remedy, so the unit differs between rulings.
The full decision is always at the source.