Data transparency and open data

Fraud

Local Authorities must publish information about their counter fraud work.  The Council is committed to developing an anti-fraud culture across the organisation and takes a proactive approach to counter fraud activity. The Council has adopted a number of policies and dedicated procedures that deal with fraud including an Anti-Fraud and Corruption policy and an Anti-Money Laundering policy.

Fraud training and awareness is mandatory for all new starters to the organisation and existing staff are encouraged to complete a fraud prevention e learning course run by the Surrey Learn Partnership.

The Council is a member of the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). This is a data matching exercise operated by the Public Sector Fraud Authority that helps prevent and detect fraud. The NFI covers a wide range of organisations including the police, councils, hospitals as well as some private organisations. Surrey Heath Borough Council shares electronic data which is matched with other public sector organisations including housing, licensing, parking, payroll and council tax information. Where fraud has been identified the Council will attempt to recover any fraudulent or overpayments made or misuse of funds.  

The Council participates in the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) and regularly receives fraud intelligence from NAFNs intelligence 'hub' database. NAFN also provides fraud related training and access to Equifax as well as access to the tenancy and housing fraud system. The Council regularly receives fraud related bulletins on issues such as bank mandate fraud and grant fraud.

The Council's Internal Audit team periodically examines and reviews the organisation's systems, governance arrangements and control mechanisms in place to help prevent and detect fraud and recommends areas where improvements can be made.

The Department of Works and Pensions undertake investigations and prosecutions of fraud under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (power to Require Information) England Regulations 2014. 

Gender pay gap report

The council is required to publish an annual gender pay gap report which will show the difference in average earnings between men and women.   The gender pay gap demonstrates the difference between the average (mean and median) earnings of men and female employees.

• The mean pay gap is the difference between average hourly earnings of men and women.
• The median pay gap is the difference between the mid-point in the range of hourly earnings of men and women, when arranged from lowest to highest.

The mean and median figures can be found in the Council’s Gender Pay Gap report at 31 March 2024.

Property Asset Register

In accordance with our transparency obligation Surrey Heath Borough Council publish details of all land and building assets owned, occupied and controlled by us.

Pay policy statement

The pay policy statement is provided in accordance with Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011 and this will be updated annually from April each year.

This pay policy statement sets out Surrey Heath Borough Council’s policies relating to the pay of its workforce for the financial year 2022-24.

Surrey Heath Borough Council Pay Policy Statement.pdf (PDF, 203.35KB)

Pay scales and senior salaries

Local authorities are required to publish an organisation chart covering staff in the top three levels of the organisation.

The information required is the grade, job title, local authority department and team, salary in £5,000 brackets, budget. We have also included on the same page details about employees whose remuneration was at least £50,000 in brackets of £5,000. No employees earns more than £150,000.

Open data

You can search open data published by the Council on the Surrey Heath Hub.

Trade union 

• Total number (absolute number and full time equivalent) of staff who are union representatives: 3 staff, 2.4 full time equivalent
• Total number (absolute number and full time equivalent) of union representatives who devote at least 50% of their time to union duties: 0
• Names of the trade union represented in the local authority: Unison
• A basic estimate of spending on unions (calculated as the number of full time equivalent days spent on union duties by authority staff that spent the majority of their time on union duties multiplied by the average salary):£0
• A basic estimate of spending on unions as a percentage of the total pay bill (calculated as the number of full time equivalent days spent on union duties by authority staff that spent the majority of their time on union duties multiplied by the average salary divided by the total pay bill): £0 

Workforce profile

• The Workforce Profile presents data on Surrey Heath Borough Council’s workforce between the period of 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. This profile demonstrates the Council’s compliance with the general duty under section 149 of the Equality Act (2010).
• View the workforce profile.