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 301–382 of 382 · page 4 of 4
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Northamptonshire Council westnorthants.gov.ukregister id E06000062; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| West Oxfordshire District Council westoxon.gov.ukregister id E07000181; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 2 | |
| West Suffolk District Council westsuffolk.gov.ukregister id E07000245; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| West Sussex County Council westsussex.gov.ukregister id E10000032; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 62 | Gated | 32 | |
| Westmorland and Furness Council westmorlandandfurness.gov.ukregister id E06000064; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | Gated | 32 | |
| Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council wigan.gov.ukregister id E08000010; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 55 | No | 9 | |
| Wiltshire Council wiltshire.gov.ukblockedregister id E06000054; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Winchester City Council winchester.gov.ukregister id E07000094; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Wirral Council wirral.gov.ukregister id E08000015; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Woking Borough Council woking.gov.ukblockedregister id E07000217; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Wokingham Borough Council wokingham.gov.ukregister id E06000041; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| Worcester City Council worcester.gov.ukregister id E07000237; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Worcestershire County Council worcestershire.gov.ukregister id E10000034; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Worthing Borough Council adur-worthing.gov.ukregister id E07000229; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 21 | |
| Wychavon District Council wychavon.gov.ukregister id E07000238; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Wyre Council wyre.gov.ukregister id E07000128; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Wyre Forest District Council wyreforestdc.gov.ukregister id E07000239; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 9 | |
| Aberdeen City Council aberdeencity.gov.ukregister id S12000033; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 50 | No | 1 | |
| Aberdeenshire Council aberdeenshire.gov.ukregister id S12000034; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 32 | |
| Angus Council angus.gov.ukblockedregister id S12000041; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Argyll and Bute Council argyll-bute.gov.ukregister id S12000035; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 32 | |
| City of Edinburgh Council edinburgh.gov.ukregister id S12000036; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 55 | No | 32 | |
| Clackmannanshire Council clacks.gov.ukregister id S12000005; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 7 | |
| Comhairle nan Eilean Siar cne-siar.gov.ukblockedregister id S12000013; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Dumfries and Galloway Council dumgal.gov.ukregister id S12000006; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 74 | No | 1 | |
| Dundee City Council dundeecity.gov.ukregister id S12000042; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| East Ayrshire Council east-ayrshire.gov.ukregister id S12000008; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 46 | No | 17 | |
| East Dunbartonshire Council eastdunbarton.gov.ukregister id S12000045; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| East Lothian Council eastlothian.gov.ukregister id S12000010; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 71 | No | 32 | |
| East Renfrewshire Council eastrenfrewshire.gov.ukblockedregister id S12000011; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Falkirk Council falkirk.gov.ukregister id S12000014; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| Fife Council fife.gov.ukblockedregister id S12000015; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Glasgow City Council glasgow.gov.ukblockedregister id S12000046; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Inverclyde Council inverclyde.gov.ukregister id S12000018; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Midlothian Council midlothian.gov.ukregister id S12000019; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| North Ayrshire Council north-ayrshire.gov.ukregister id S12000021; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| North Lanarkshire Council northlanarkshire.gov.ukregister id S12000044; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | Gated | 32 | |
| Orkney Islands Council orkney.gov.ukregister id S12000023; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Perth and Kinross Council pkc.gov.ukregister id S12000024; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| Renfrewshire Council renfrewshire.gov.ukregister id S12000038; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 49 | No | 32 | |
| Scottish Borders Council scotborders.gov.ukregister id S12000026; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Shetland Islands Council shetland.gov.ukregister id S12000027; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| South Ayrshire Council south-ayrshire.gov.ukblockedregister id S12000028; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| South Lanarkshire Council southlanarkshire.gov.ukregister id S12000029; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Stirling Council stirling.gov.ukblockedregister id S12000030; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| The Highland Council highland.gov.ukregister id S12000017; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 32 | |
| The Moray Council moray.gov.ukregister id S12000020; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| West Dunbartonshire Council west-dunbarton.gov.ukregister id S12000039; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| West Lothian Council westlothian.gov.ukregister id S12000040; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council blaenau-gwent.gov.ukregister id W06000019; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 3 | |
| Bridgend County Borough Council bridgend.gov.ukregister id W06000013; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 4 | |
| Caerphilly County Borough Council caerphilly.gov.ukregister id W06000018; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 3 | |
| Carmarthenshire County Council carmarthenshire.gov.walesregister id W06000010; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; Local Links Manager gives https://www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales/home/council-services/; cut back to the site root | 64 | No | 1 | |
| Ceredigion County Council ceredigion.gov.ukregister id W06000008; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 1 | |
| City and County of Swansea Council swansea.gov.ukblockedregister id W06000011; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| City of Cardiff Council cardiff.gov.ukblockedregister id W06000015; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Conwy County Borough Council conwy.gov.ukregister id W06000003; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 55 | No | 1 | |
| Denbighshire County Council denbighshire.gov.ukregister id W06000004; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Flintshire County Council flintshire.gov.ukregister id W06000005; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Gwynedd Council gwynedd.llyw.cymruregister id W06000002; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 32 | |
| Isle of Anglesey County Council anglesey.gov.ukregister id W06000001; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 3 | |
| Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council merthyr.gov.ukregister id W06000024; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Monmouthshire County Council monmouthshire.gov.ukregister id W06000021; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council neath-porttalbot.gov.ukregister id W06000012; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 1 | |
| Newport City Council newport.gov.ukblockedregister id W06000022; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Pembrokeshire County Council pembrokeshire.gov.ukregister id W06000009; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Powys County Council powys.gov.ukregister id W06000023; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 1 | |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council rctcbc.gov.ukregister id W06000016; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Torfaen County Borough Council torfaen.gov.ukregister id W06000020; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 49 | No | 32 | |
| Vale of Glamorgan Council valeofglamorgan.gov.ukregister id W06000014; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it; Local Links Manager gives https://valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/en/index.aspx; cut back to the site root | 59 | No | 31 | |
| Wrexham County Borough Council wrexham.gov.ukregister id W06000006; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.ukregister id N09000001; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 17 | |
| Ards and North Down Borough Council ardsandnorthdown.gov.ukregister id N09000011; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.ukregister id N09000002; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Belfast City Council belfastcity.gov.ukregister id N09000003; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 26 | |
| Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council causewaycoastandglens.gov.ukregister id N09000004; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Derry City and Strabane District Council derrystrabane.comregister id N09000005; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 10 | |
| Fermanagh and Omagh District Council fermanaghomagh.comregister id N09000006; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council lisburncastlereagh.gov.ukregister id N09000007; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 17 | |
| Mid Ulster District Council midulstercouncil.orgregister id N09000009; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 42 | Gated | 9 | |
| Mid and East Antrim Borough Council midandeastantrim.gov.ukregister id N09000008; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 7 | |
| Newry, Mourne and Down District Council newrymournedown.orgregister id N09000010; address from GOV.UK Local Links Manager (high confidence), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 |
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.