Table of Contents
- Data Sources
- Company Identifiers
- Search Capabilities
- Quirks & Gotchas
- Mappings
- Data Availability
- Example API Responses
Data Sources
All UK company data is sourced from the Companies House API, the official public data API operated by Companies House — the UK executive agency responsible for incorporating and dissolving limited companies. Companies House traces its origins to 1844, when the Joint Stock Companies Act first enabled companies to be incorporated by registration. There is a single data source for all UK entities. No priority chain or fallback logic is needed — all data flows through one unified API.All company types
- Companies House Public Data API (
api.company-information.service.gov.uk) — Provides structured company profile data including company name, status, legal form, registered address, SIC codes, officers (directors and secretaries), and Persons with Significant Control (PSCs). This is our sole source for all UK company information (company profile, officers, PSCs, establishments). - Companies House Document API (
document-api.company-information.service.gov.uk) — Used to retrieve the actual PDF content of filed documents from the filing history (accounts, incorporation documents, confirmation statements, resolutions, etc.).
The Companies House API is a free, open API. All company data and documents are available at no charge. Rate limits apply (600 requests per 5 minutes per API key).
How data is fetched
For a company profile request, the system makes three parallel API calls to Companies House:- Company profile (
/company/{number}) — name, status, legal form, address, SIC codes, jurisdiction, previous names - Officers (
/company/{number}/officers) — directors, secretaries, and other officers (up to 2,000 per request) - Persons with Significant Control (
/company/{number}/persons-with-significant-control) — individuals and corporate entities with significant control
Company Identifiers
Query Identifiers
| Company Type | Format | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard UK companies | 8 digits | 12345678 | Includes Ltd, PLC, LLP, etc. |
| Overseas companies | FC + 6 digits | FC022268 | Foreign companies registered in the UK |
| UK establishments | BR + 6 digits | BR011501 | UK branches of overseas companies |
| Scottish companies | SC + 6 digits | SC123456 | Companies registered in Scotland |
| Northern Ireland companies | NI + 6 digits | NI012345 | Companies registered in Northern Ireland |
Identifiers in API Response
| Identifier Type | Format | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
companiesHouseNumber | 8 characters | 03789983 | Always present — the primary identifier |
jurisdiction | String | england-wales | Jurisdiction within the UK (when available) |
The UK does not use VAT numbers as company identifiers in the Companies House register. UK VAT numbers (format:
GB + 9 digits) are managed by HMRC, not Companies House.Search Capabilities
| Search Type | Pattern | Example | Match Type | Expected Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| By Company Number | 8 digits | 03789983 | Exact | Single company (1 result) |
| By Name | Text string (2-160 chars) | "TECHNOLOGY UK LIMITED" | Fuzzy | Multiple results (active companies only) |
Search uses both live API lookups and pre-built indexes. Company number searches perform a live lookup against the Companies House API for exact matching. Name searches query the Companies House search endpoint which returns active companies by default.
Quirks & Gotchas
| Quirk | Details | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name format is SURNAME, Firstname | Companies House returns officer names in “SURNAME, Firstname” format. The system parses this automatically, splitting on the comma. | ||
| No direct shareholder API | Companies House does not expose a shareholders endpoint. Shareholders are AI-reconstructed from filing history documents (capital, confirmation statements, incorporation documents). | ||
| PSC = UBO (not shareholder) | The PSC (Persons with Significant Control) register maps to UBOs, not shareholders. Individual PSCs become UBOs; corporate and legal-person PSCs become Other Key Persons. | ||
| Ownership in ranges, not exact | PSC ownership is expressed as ranges (25-50%, 50-75%, 75-100%), not exact percentages. This is a Companies House data model limitation. | ||
| Resigned officers filtered out | Only active (non-resigned) officers are returned. Officers with a resigned_on date are excluded from the response. | ||
| SIC codes are UK-specific | UK SIC 2007 codes are 5 digits and identical to NACE Rev. 2 at the 4-digit level, with UK-specific subclasses at the 5th digit. NACE and ISIC mappings are AI-inferred. | ||
| All documents are free | Unlike many other jurisdictions, all UK Companies House documents are available at no charge. | ||
| Overseas companies have establishments | Companies with FC prefix are foreign companies registered in the UK. They may have UK establishment branches (BR prefix). Establishments are only fetched for FC-prefixed companies. | ||
| Super-secure PSCs | Some PSCs are classified as “super-secure” with protected details. These appear as “Protected Person with Significant Control” in the UBO data with no personal information. | ||
| Corporate PSCs are OKPs, not UBOs | Corporate and legal-person PSCs are mapped as Other Key Persons (with role “Person with Significant Control”), not as UBOs. Only individual PSCs become UBOs. | ||
| Secretaries are OKPs, not legal reps | Company secretaries (including corporate secretaries and nominee secretaries) are classified as Other Key Persons, not Legal Representatives. | ||
| Role includes occupation | When Companies House provides an officer’s occupation, the role localName is formatted as `“Mapped Role | Occupation”(e.g.,”Director | Managing Director”`). |
| Previous company names preserved | Companies that have changed names retain their historical names in the legacyLegalNames array. |
Mappings
Company Status
Company status is determined deterministically from the Companies House APIcompany_status field — no AI inference is involved.
| Local Status | Standardized Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
active | Active | Company is currently active |
dissolved | Closed | Company has been dissolved |
liquidation | Closed | Company is in liquidation |
administration | Under Insolvency Proceeding | Company is in administration |
voluntary-arrangement | Unknown | Company under voluntary arrangement |
converted-closed | Unknown | Company has been converted or closed |
insolvency-proceedings | Unknown | Company is subject to insolvency proceedings |
registered | Active | Overseas company registered in the UK |
removed | Unknown | Company has been removed from the register |
open | Active | Open (used for some company types) |
closed | Closed | Closed |
The mapping logic:
active maps to Active; statuses containing liquidation or dissolved map to Closed; statuses containing administration map to Under Insolvency Proceeding; all others map to Unknown. The localName field always preserves the original Companies House status value.Legal Forms
Legal forms are mapped deterministically from the Companies Housecompany_type field to human-readable English descriptions. Since the UK is an English-speaking country, the localName and englishTranslation fields are identical. Standardization to Topograph types and ISO 20275 codes is AI-enriched.
Key Business Forms
Key Business Forms
| Companies House Code | Legal Form (localName) | Standardized | ISO 20275 |
|---|---|---|---|
ltd | Private limited company | Limited Liability Company | SQXV |
plc | Public limited company | Corporation | GKFN |
private-unlimited | Private unlimited company | Sole Proprietorship | - |
private-unlimited-nsc | Private unlimited company without share capital | Sole Proprietorship | - |
private-limited-guarant-nsc | Private limited by guarantee without share capital | Limited Liability Company | - |
private-limited-guarant-nsc-limited-exemption | Private Limited Company by guarantee without share capital, use of ‘Limited’ exemption | Limited Liability Company | - |
private-limited-shares-section-30-exemption | Private Limited Company, use of ‘Limited’ exemption | Limited Liability Company | - |
old-public-company | Old public company | Corporation | - |
converted-or-closed | Converted / closed | Other | - |
unregistered-company | Unregistered company | Other | - |
other | Other company type | Other | - |
Partnerships & LLPs
Partnerships & LLPs
| Companies House Code | Legal Form (localName) | Standardized | ISO 20275 |
|---|---|---|---|
llp | Limited liability partnership | Partnership | 8VXR |
limited-partnership | Limited partnership | Partnership | - |
scottish-partnership | Scottish qualifying partnership | Partnership | - |
Non-Profits & Charities
Non-Profits & Charities
| Companies House Code | Legal Form (localName) | Standardized | ISO 20275 |
|---|---|---|---|
charitable-incorporated-organisation | Charitable incorporated organisation | Nonprofit Organization | - |
scottish-charitable-incorporated-organisation | Scottish charitable incorporated organisation | Nonprofit Organization | - |
European & International Forms
European & International Forms
| Companies House Code | Legal Form (localName) | Standardized | ISO 20275 |
|---|---|---|---|
european-public-limited-liability-company-se | European public limited liability company (SE) | Corporation | - |
united-kingdom-societas | United Kingdom Societas | Corporation | - |
eeig | European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) | Other | - |
eeig-establishment | European Economic Interest Grouping Establishment (EEIG) | Other | - |
ukeig | United Kingdom Economic Interest Grouping | Other | - |
Overseas & Branch Offices
Overseas & Branch Offices
| Companies House Code | Legal Form (localName) | Standardized | ISO 20275 |
|---|---|---|---|
oversea-company | Overseas company | Branch or Representative Office | - |
registered-overseas-entity | Overseas entity | Branch or Representative Office | - |
uk-establishment | UK establishment company | Branch or Representative Office | - |
Investment & Financial Entities
Investment & Financial Entities
| Companies House Code | Legal Form (localName) | Standardized | ISO 20275 |
|---|---|---|---|
investment-company-with-variable-capital | Investment company with variable capital | Other | - |
icvc-securities | Investment company with variable capital | Other | - |
icvc-warrant | Investment company with variable capital | Other | - |
icvc-umbrella | Investment company with variable capital | Other | - |
assurance-company | Assurance-company | Other | - |
protected-cell-company | Protected cell company | Other | - |
Other & Regional Forms
Other & Regional Forms
| Companies House Code | Legal Form (localName) | Standardized | ISO 20275 |
|---|---|---|---|
royal-charter | Royal charter company | Other | - |
industrial-and-provident-society | Industrial and Provident society | Cooperative | - |
registered-society-non-jurisdictional | Registered society | Other | - |
northern-ireland | Northern Ireland company | Other | - |
northern-ireland-other | Credit union (Northern Ireland) | Other | - |
further-education-or-sixth-form-college-corporation | Further education or sixth form college corporation | Government-Owned Entity | - |
The
localName field is deterministically mapped from Companies House company_type codes using a static lookup table. The standardized type and iso20275Code are AI-enriched and may evolve. Source: Companies House API enumerations.Legal Representatives
Legal representatives are extracted from the Companies House officers endpoint. The classification of an officer as legal representative vs. other key person is deterministic: all secretary roles are Other Key Persons; all other active officer roles are Legal Representatives. The rolelocalName is built by combining the mapped officer role with the occupation field (when available) using a " | " separator. For example, if the officer role is director and the occupation is Managing Director, the localName will be "Director | Managing Director".
Both individuals and corporate entities can hold officer roles. Corporate officers are detected by the presence of an identification field.
Director & Management Roles (Legal Representatives)
Director & Management Roles (Legal Representatives)
| Companies House Code | Mapped Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
director | Director | Most common role for UK companies |
corporate-director | Director | Corporate entity serving as director |
nominee-director | Nominee Director | Director appointed on behalf of another |
corporate-nominee-director | Nominee Director | Corporate entity as nominee director |
cic-manager | CIC Manager | Community Interest Company manager |
managing-officer | Managing Officer | Used for overseas entities |
corporate-managing-officer | Managing Officer | Corporate entity as managing officer |
LLP Member Roles (Legal Representatives)
LLP Member Roles (Legal Representatives)
| Companies House Code | Mapped Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
llp-designated-member | LLP Designated Member | Designated member of an LLP |
corporate-llp-designated-member | LLP Designated Member | Corporate entity as LLP designated member |
llp-member | LLP Member | Member of an LLP |
corporate-llp-member | LLP Member | Corporate entity as LLP member |
Partnership Roles (Legal Representatives)
Partnership Roles (Legal Representatives)
| Companies House Code | Mapped Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
general-partner-in-a-limited-partnership | General Partner in a Limited Partnership | Active management partner |
limited-partner-in-a-limited-partnership | Limited Partner in a Limited Partnership | Passive investment partner |
European / SE Roles (Legal Representatives)
European / SE Roles (Legal Representatives)
| Companies House Code | Mapped Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
member-of-a-management-organ | Member of a Management Organ | SE company management organ |
corporate-member-of-a-management-organ | Member of a Management Organ | Corporate entity in management organ |
member-of-a-supervisory-organ | Member of a Supervisory Organ | SE company supervisory organ |
corporate-member-of-a-supervisory-organ | Member of a Supervisory Organ | Corporate entity in supervisory organ |
member-of-an-administrative-organ | Member of an Administrative Organ | SE company administrative organ |
corporate-member-of-an-administrative-organ | Member of an Administrative Organ | Corporate entity in administrative organ |
manager-of-an-eeig | Manager of an EEIG | EEIG manager |
corporate-manager-of-an-eeig | Manager of an EEIG | Corporate entity as EEIG manager |
Overseas Entity Roles (Legal Representatives)
Overseas Entity Roles (Legal Representatives)
| Companies House Code | Mapped Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
person-authorised-to-accept | Person Authorised to Accept | Service of documents |
person-authorised-to-represent | Person Authorised to Represent | Representing the entity |
person-authorised-to-represent-and-accept | Person Authorised to Represent and Accept | Both roles combined |
Special Roles (Legal Representatives)
Special Roles (Legal Representatives)
| Companies House Code | Mapped Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
judicial-factor | Judicial Factor | Court-appointed factor (Scottish law) |
receiver-and-manager | Receiver and Manager | Appointed by court or creditor |
Other Key Persons
Secretary roles and corporate PSCs are classified as Other Key Persons. Secretary Roles:| Companies House Code | Mapped Role | Standardized |
|---|---|---|
secretary | Secretary | Secretary |
corporate-secretary | Secretary | Secretary |
nominee-secretary | Nominee Secretary | Secretary |
corporate-nominee-secretary | Nominee Secretary | Secretary |
| PSC Kind | Mapped Role | Standardized |
|---|---|---|
corporate-entity-person-with-significant-control | Person with Significant Control | Other |
legal-person-with-significant-control | Person with Significant Control | Other |
The secretary classification is deterministic — any officer role containing “secretary” in the
officer_role field or occupation field is classified as an Other Key Person with standardized role Secretary. Corporate and legal-person PSCs are always Other Key Persons; only individual PSCs become UBOs.Shareholders
The Companies House API does not provide a dedicated shareholders endpoint. Shareholders are extracted from filing history documents using AI-based reconstruction. Extraction Logic:| Source Document Category | When Used | Data Extracted |
|---|---|---|
| Capital documents | Share allotments, capital changes | Share structure and allottees |
| Confirmation statements | Annual returns with shareholding info | Current shareholders |
| Incorporation documents | Articles of association, initial subscribers | Initial shareholders |
| Resolution documents | Share-related decisions | Share transfers and changes |
- Filters available documents to categories likely to contain shareholder information (
capital,annual-return,incorporation,resolution) - Downloads the selected PDFs (all free from Companies House)
- Extracts shareholders using AI parsing
- Returns reconstructed shareholder data with share percentages and ownership details
| Field | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|
sharePercentage | Ownership percentage | AI-extracted from documents |
type | Individual or Company | Determined from name patterns |
numberOfShares | Number of shares held | AI-extracted from documents |
Activity Code Mapping
UK companies use UK SIC 2007 (UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities 2007) codes as returned by Companies House. UK SIC 2007 is maintained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and is identical to NACE Rev. 2 at the 4-digit level, with UK-specific 5-digit subclasses.| Classification | Source | Example | AI Inferred? |
|---|---|---|---|
| SIC | Companies House API (sic_codes) | 62012 | No (official) |
| NACE | AI-mapped from SIC | 6201 | Yes |
| ISIC | AI-mapped from SIC | 6201 | Yes |
SIC codes are formally parsed (never AI-inferred). The
isAIInferred flag is always false for SIC codes. NACE and ISIC classifications are AI-enriched from the SIC codes since there is no deterministic mapping table in the system. Companies can have multiple SIC codes.Data Availability
Data Availability Matrix
| Data Type | Regular UK Companies | Overseas Companies (FC) | UK Establishments (BR) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company Profile | ✅ Async | ✅ Async | ✅ Async | From Companies House Public Data API |
| Legal Representatives | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Active directors from officers endpoint |
| Other Key Persons | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Secretaries + corporate PSCs |
| Shareholders | ✅ (AI-reconstructed) | ⚠️ Limited | ❌ | Reconstructed from filing documents |
| Ultimate Beneficial Owners | ✅ | ⚠️ Limited | ❌ | From PSC register (individuals only) |
| Establishments | ❌ | ✅ | N/A | UK branches of overseas companies (FC prefix only) |
| Activity Codes (SIC) | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | SIC codes from Companies House |
| Documents | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ Limited | Free PDFs from filing history |
Documents by Company Type
All UK company documents are sourced from the Companies House filing history and are free of charge.| Document Category | API Type | Format | SKU | Availability | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Register Extract | tradeRegisterExtract | GBR_REGISTER_EXTRACT | ✅ All companies | Official Companies House report (generated via HTML-to-PDF) | |
| Incorporation Documents | articlesOfAssociation | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Articles of association and incorporation documents | |
| Annual Accounts | financialStatements | GBR_FINANCIAL_STATEMENTS | ✅ When filed | Annual accounts and financial statements | |
| Capital Documents | Other | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Share capital and structure changes | |
| Officer Changes | Other | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Director and secretary appointments/terminations | |
| Confirmation Statements | Other | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Annual confirmation statements (formerly annual returns) | |
| Resolutions | Other | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Company resolutions | |
| Address Changes | Other | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Registered office address changes | |
| Charges / Mortgages | Other | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Charges and mortgages registrations | |
| Miscellaneous | Other | GBR_STATUS | ✅ When filed | Other company filings |
The Trade Register Extract is always available for all companies and is generated by fetching the company page HTML from Companies House and converting it to PDF. Filing history documents are fetched from the Companies House Document API with pagination support (up to 2,000 documents, 100 per page).
Example API Responses
All examples use placeholder data. Query:POST /company with { "id": "<id>", "countryCode": "GB", "dataPoints": ["companyProfile"] }
Active Private Limited Company (Ltd)
Active Private Limited Company (Ltd)
Dissolved Public Limited Company (PLC)
Dissolved Public Limited Company (PLC)
active: false and may have no active officers. Resigned officers are filtered out, so a dissolved company may return an empty legalRepresentatives array.Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
Overseas Company (FC prefix) with Establishments
Overseas Company (FC prefix) with Establishments
establishments array lists UK branches/offices of the foreign parent company. Only companies with FC prefix trigger the establishments fetch.UBO Response (dedicated datapoint)
UBO Response (dedicated datapoint)
Query with Note: UBOs come from the PSC register. Individual PSCs become UBOs with ownership/voting percentage ranges. Corporate and legal-person PSCs appear as Other Key Persons. Super-secure PSCs appear with
"dataPoints": ["ultimateBeneficialOwners"]:fullName: "Protected Person with Significant Control" and no personal details.Available Documents (filing history)
Available Documents (filing history)
Documents are returned when
From filing history (when filed):
All documents are free (no per-document cost).
"dataPoints": ["documents"] is requested.Always available:| API Category | Document | Notes |
|---|---|---|
tradeRegisterExtract | Companies House company report | Free, always available |
| Filing Category | API Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
incorporation | articlesOfAssociation | Incorporation documents and articles |
accounts | financialStatements | Annual accounts |
capital | Other | Share capital changes |
officers | Other | Officer appointments/terminations |
annual-return | Other | Confirmation statements |
resolution | Other | Company resolutions |
address | Other | Registered office changes |
mortgage | Other | Charges and mortgages |
change-of-name | Other | Company name changes |
liquidation | Other | Liquidation documents |
miscellaneous | Other | Other filings |