UK Councils
Search every site in this cohortuk-councils
Every principal local authority in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Median score
61
across 320 sites
Middle half
54–66
spread around the median
Full range
29–77
lowest to highest
Gated
97 of 320
block AI crawlers outright
Middle of 31 cohorts. All cohorts 54 · best cohort 63.
Where this list came from
The source, and how we filtered it
| Source | GOV.UK Local Links Manager, Government Digital Service (GOV.UK) (2026-11-02) |
|---|---|
| License | Crown copyright, published by GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which permits copying, publishing and adapting the information, including commercially, with attribution. |
| Cite as | Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. |
| How we filtered it | Took every authority (name and GSS code) in Local Links Manager's nightly export (last modified 2026-11-02). For each, asked the Local Links Manager API (/api/local-authority?authority_slug=) with a slug derived from the name, or a variant (18 listed in the script). The answer is accepted only when the API returns the same GSS code; homepage, tier and country come from the API. Three authorities abolished in 2019 and 2021 were dropped, since the API maps their old slugs to the councils that replaced them. Homepages were trimmed, the host lowercased and cut to the root (6 had a path, noted). |
| Instead of | ONS code lists alone (no websites); the .gov.uk register (domains, not homepages); guessing homepages from names. |
| Built | 2026-11-02 |
The filtering is ours and is disclosed as ours. The source published a list; the decision about which rows of it belong in a cohort was a judgment call, and it is written down so somebody can disagree with it.
Distribution
Where the 320 sites land
| Grade | Share of the cohort | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adequate | 174 | 54.4% | |
| Not ready | 8 | 2.5% | |
| Weak | 134 | 41.9% | |
| Strong | 4 | 1.2% |
By dimension
What the cohort earns, dimension by dimension
The mean share of each dimension’s available points that this cohort earned. Low here means the whole sector is weak on it, not that one site dragged an average down. The per-site spread is in the dataset.
| Dimension | Mean share earned | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| #1 · Reach
These parameters determine the fundamental ease of access that AI has to your site information. |
81% | |
| #2 · Read
AI generally turns off JavaScript. Does your site information survive without it? |
55% | |
| #3 · Understand
Does a machine know who and what you are? |
23% | |
| #4 · Act
Sitemaps, redirects, 404s, licensing terms, and not wasting the crawl budget. |
88% |
How much of each site we read
The cap is 32 URLs and it is a ceiling, not a promise. A portal whose every link points at a different host yields one page; a university yields the full sample. The median here is 32, the range 1–32, published so that "we sampled 32 URLs per site" cannot become a claim the data does not support.
6 sites in this cohort served a certificate we could not verify. They were read anyway and scored normally, because reporting no response for a site every browser loads would describe our TLS stack rather than the site, and each one carries the finding in its row.
Where this cohort fails
12 tests almost nobody in this cohort passes
Universal — nobody passes these
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACT-3 | If you have a public API, is it described in a standard file? | 1 | 2 | |
| EXT-1 | Do you publish an llms.txt file for coding assistants? | 320 | 0 | |
| EXT-11 | Have you marked the part of a page that answers a spoken question? | 320 | 0 | |
| EXT-12 | Do you tell search engines the moment a page changes? | 320 | 0 | |
| EXT-14 | Does your site offer its actions to AI browsers as tools? | 317 | 0 | |
| EXT-15 | Can an AI agent find out how to sign in to your site? | 1 | 0 | |
| EXT-16 | Do you publish a card or a skills list for the agents you run? | 320 | 0 | |
| EXT-17 | Do you list your agents in your domain's DNS records? | 316 | 0 | |
| EXT-2 | Do you list your APIs and agent tools where agents look for them? | 16 | 0 | |
| EXT-7 | If you run real question-and-answer pages, are they marked as such? | 33 | 0 | |
| RED-10 | Do you offer a plain-text (Markdown) copy of your pages? | 292 | 2 | |
| RED-12 | If a machine asks for Markdown, does your site give it? | 320 | 2 |
Near-universal — 95% and above
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UND-2 | Does your site use the page labels that search engines still read for what you publish? | 320 | 3 | |
| UND-5 | Does the author label in your page code point to that person? | 279 | 1 | |
| UND-1 | Does your site say clearly who you are? | 320 | 2 | |
| PST-2 | Have you posted a Content Signals statement about what AI may do with your content? | 320 | 0 | |
| UND-10 | Does your page code link to your official profiles elsewhere? | 320 | 2 | |
| UND-6 | Are your published and updated dates honest and visible? | 320 | 6 | |
| EXT-13 | Can an assistant ask your site a question directly? | 320 | 0 | |
| PST-4 | Have you reserved your text and data mining rights in a form machines can read? | 320 | 0 | |
| EXT-4 | Can an AI assistant connect to your site as a tool? | 320 | 0 |
Common — 90 to 95%
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXT-5 | Is your page code one connected description of your organization? | 320 | 0 |
Coral bars mark tests worth 2 points or more, the failures that actually move a score.
Every site
Every 382, named, with a report for each
Whether or not it has been scanned. Rows with no website on record, sites that were unreachable and sites that turned us away stay in the table with the reason on them, and none of them enters an average: dropping them would shrink the population to the part that was easy to measure. A few points between two neighbors is noise. The box filters every row in the cohort, not only the page you are on; click a header to sort the rows on this page by name or by score.
Showing 1–100 of 382 · page 1 of 4
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adur District Council adur-worthing.gov.ukregister id E07000223; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 21 | |
| Amber Valley Borough Council ambervalley.gov.ukregister id E07000032; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 39 | Gated | 32 | |
| Arun District Council arun.gov.ukregister id E07000224; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 2 | |
| Ashfield District Council ashfield.gov.ukregister id E07000170; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 1 | |
| Ashford Borough Council ashford.gov.ukregister id E07000105; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| Babergh District Council babergh.gov.ukregister id E07000200; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 21 | |
| Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council barnsley.gov.ukregister id E08000016; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Basildon Borough Council basildon.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000066; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council basingstoke.gov.ukregister id E07000084; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 74 | No | 32 | |
| Bassetlaw District Council bassetlaw.gov.ukregister id E07000171; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 3 | |
| Bath and North East Somerset Council bathnes.gov.ukregister id E06000022; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Bedford Borough Council bedford.gov.ukregister id E06000055; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Birmingham City Council birmingham.gov.ukregister id E08000025; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Blaby District Council blaby.gov.ukregister id E07000129; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council blackburn.gov.ukregister id E06000008; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Blackpool Borough Council blackpool.gov.ukregister id E06000009; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; Local Links Manager gives https://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Home.aspx; cut back to the site root | 46 | Gated | 32 | |
| Bolsover District Council bolsover.gov.ukregister id E07000033; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 31 | Gated | 14 | |
| Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council bolton.gov.ukregister id E08000001; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk west-norfolk.gov.ukregister id E07000146; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Borough of Broxbourne broxbourne.gov.ukregister id E07000095; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Boston Borough Council boston.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000136; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council bcpcouncil.gov.ukregister id E06000058; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Bracknell Forest Council bracknell-forest.gov.ukregister id E06000036; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| Braintree District Council braintree.gov.ukregister id E07000067; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Breckland Council breckland.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000143; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Brentwood Borough Council brentwood.gov.ukregister id E07000068; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Brighton and Hove City Council brighton-hove.gov.ukblockedregister id E06000043; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Imperva) | — | No | — | |
| Bristol City Council bristol.gov.ukregister id E06000023; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 42 | Gated | 25 | |
| Broadland District Council southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.ukregister id E07000144; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Bromsgrove District Council bromsgrove.gov.ukregister id E07000234; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| Broxtowe Borough Council broxtowe.gov.ukregister id E07000172; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Buckinghamshire Council buckinghamshire.gov.ukregister id E06000060; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Burnley Borough Council burnley.gov.ukregister id E07000117; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | Gated | 32 | |
| Bury Metropolitan Borough Council bury.gov.ukregister id E08000002; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council calderdale.gov.ukregister id E08000033; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| Cambridge City Council cambridge.gov.ukregister id E07000008; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 46 | No | 15 | |
| Cambridgeshire County Council cambridgeshire.gov.ukregister id E10000003; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Cannock Chase District Council cannockchasedc.gov.ukregister id E07000192; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Canterbury City Council canterbury.gov.ukregister id E07000106; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 50 | No | 25 | |
| Castle Point Borough Council castlepoint.gov.ukregister id E07000069; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 5 | |
| Central Bedfordshire Council centralbedfordshire.gov.ukblockedregister id E06000056; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Charnwood Borough Council charnwood.gov.ukregister id E07000130; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| Chelmsford City Council chelmsford.gov.ukregister id E07000070; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 27 | |
| Cheltenham Borough Council cheltenham.gov.ukregister id E07000078; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Cherwell District Council cherwell.gov.ukregister id E07000177; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 32 | |
| Cheshire East Council cheshireeast.gov.ukregister id E06000049; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 45 | No | 9 | |
| Cheshire West and Chester Council cheshirewestandchester.gov.ukregister id E06000050; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Chesterfield Borough Council chesterfield.gov.ukregister id E07000034; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Chichester District Council chichester.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000225; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Chorley Council chorley.gov.ukregister id E07000118; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council bradford.gov.ukregister id E08000032; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| City of Lincoln Council lincoln.gov.ukregister id E07000138; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| City of London Corporation cityoflondon.gov.ukregister id E09000001; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 1 | |
| City of Westminster westminster.gov.ukregister id E09000033; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| City of Wolverhampton Council wolverhampton.gov.ukregister id E08000031; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 47 | No | 32 | |
| City of York Council york.gov.ukregister id E06000014; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Colchester City Council colchester.gov.ukregister id E07000071; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 31 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cornwall Council cornwall.gov.ukregister id E06000052; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | Gated | 20 | |
| Cotswold District Council cotswold.gov.ukregister id E07000079; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Council of the Isles of Scilly scilly.gov.ukregister id E06000053; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Coventry City Council coventry.gov.ukregister id E08000026; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Crawley Borough Council crawley.gov.ukregister id E07000226; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 22 | |
| Cumberland Council cumberland.gov.ukregister id E06000063; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Dacorum Borough Council dacorum.gov.ukregister id E07000096; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 28 | |
| Darlington Borough Council darlington.gov.ukregister id E06000005; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Dartford Borough Council dartford.gov.ukregister id E07000107; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Derby City derby.gov.ukregister id E06000015; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 26 | |
| Derbyshire County Council derbyshire.gov.ukregister id E10000007; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Derbyshire Dales District Council derbyshiredales.gov.ukregister id E07000035; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 37 | Gated | 32 | |
| Devon County Council new.devon.gov.ukblockedregister id E10000008; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council doncaster.gov.ukregister id E08000017; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| Dorset Council dorsetcouncil.gov.ukregister id E06000059; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Dover District Council dover.gov.ukregister id E07000108; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 47 | No | 1 | |
| Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council dudley.gov.ukregister id E08000027; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 32 | |
| Durham County Council durham.gov.ukregister id E06000047; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | Gated | 32 | |
| East Cambridgeshire District Council eastcambs.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000009; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| East Devon District Council eastdevon.gov.ukregister id E07000040; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 61 | Gated | 32 | |
| East Hampshire District Council easthants.gov.ukregister id E07000085; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| East Hertfordshire District Council eastherts.gov.ukregister id E07000242; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| East Lindsey District Council e-lindsey.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000137; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| East Riding of Yorkshire Council eastriding.gov.ukregister id E06000011; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 6 | |
| East Staffordshire Borough Council eaststaffsbc.gov.ukregister id E07000193; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| East Suffolk District Council eastsuffolk.gov.ukregister id E07000244; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 29 | Gated | 1 | |
| East Sussex County Council eastsussex.gov.ukregister id E10000011; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | Gated | 32 | |
| Eastbourne Borough Council lewes-eastbourne.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000061; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Eastleigh Borough Council eastleigh.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000086; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Elmbridge Borough Council elmbridge.gov.ukregister id E07000207; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 32 | |
| Epping Forest District Council eppingforestdc.gov.ukregister id E07000072; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 71 | No | 32 | |
| Epsom and Ewell Borough Council epsom-ewell.gov.ukregister id E07000208; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Erewash Borough Council erewash.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000036; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Essex County Council essex.gov.ukregister id E10000012; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Exeter City Council exeter.gov.ukregister id E07000041; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 61 | Gated | 32 | |
| Fareham Borough Council fareham.gov.ukregister id E07000087; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 6 | |
| Fenland District Council fenland.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000010; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Folkestone and Hythe District Council folkestone-hythe.gov.ukregister id E07000112; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Forest of Dean District Council fdean.gov.ukregister id E07000080; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| Fylde Borough Council fylde.gov.ukregister id E07000119; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 32 | |
| Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council gateshead.gov.ukblockedregister id E08000037; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Gedling Borough Council gedling.gov.ukregister id E07000173; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 75 | No | 32 | |
| Gloucester City Council gloucester.gov.ukregister id E07000081; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 11 |
Scores are for the population, not for ranking two named sites against each other. A few points between neighbors is noise. See what these numbers can and cannot support. Headline figures: summary.json (CC BY 4.0). The site-by-site data on this page is licensed; a bulk copy is from TEN7 for a fee.