Where our numbers come from

Local councils

229 councils tracked

A council joins this count as soon as we have scored it against at least one tracked action. Councils we have not yet gathered documents for are not counted, so this is the size of our coverage — not the number of councils in the UK.

The table shows how many documents of each kind we hold for each council, which is what decides the figures we can work out for it. Meeting minutes give us the record of what was decided; press releases let us compare what a council says against what it decided; public-meeting papers show what residents asked for.

17% actively supporting(38 of 229 councils)

Of the 229 councils we track, this is the share whose behaviour profile is Active — a council that has formally passed at least 35% of the actions we check it against. Where fewer than 13 actions apply to a council, we raise that bar to 45%, because a handful of decisions says less than a long record. A council that has voted against enough actions counts as Blocking instead, even if it clears that bar.

This figure uses meeting minutes only — the record we trust most, because a minute is proof of what a council actually decided. 163 councils have fewer than 5 scored actions, which is too little to judge, so they are given no profile at all.

0% greenwash risk(1 of 229 councils)Probably an undercount

Of the 229 councils we track, this is the share we have marked Greenwashing — where what a council claims in public runs ahead of what it has formally decided. We mark a council that way when that gap shows up in at least 2 policy themes, or in 1 theme where its claims across all themes outnumber its decisions by more than 2. We can only make the comparison for a council we hold at least 2 press or public-information documents for.

0% democracy deficit(0 of 229 councils)Probably an undercount

Of the 229 councils we track, this is the share we have marked a Democracy Deficit — the public asked for at least 3 of the actions we track and the council has passed fewer than 3 of them. We can only judge a council whose public-meeting records or residents' submissions we hold.

National landscape

15 national bodies tracked

Each national body is counted once: the parliament chambers, the UK government departments and the devolved governments. A body joins this count as soon as we have checked it against at least one tracked action — whether or not we found anything.

27% actively supporting(4 of 15 bodies)

Of the 15 national bodies we track, this is the share where we found something on the record for at least one action — that is, at least 1 action whose verdict is anything other than Silent.

Every body below has at least one action we found a record for. That record may be a formal decision (Acting) or support in words only (Acknowledging).

27% greenwash risk(4 of 15 bodies)

Of the 15 national bodies we track, this is the share we found something on the record for — at least 1 action whose verdict is not Silent — but never a formal decision to act: no Acting verdict on any action at all. Words on the record, with no binding decision behind them.

93% democracy deficit(14 of 15 bodies)

Of the 15 national bodies we track, this is the share that stayed Silent on at least 1 action the public had already pushed for — where people had signed an Early Day Motion or a petition on that action and the body still said nothing.