Business Registers in the United Kingdom: Companies House

Overview

The United Kingdom runs one of the most open business registries in the world. The UK business registry is operated by [Companies House](https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house), an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade. It publishes data on every incorporated entity under the Companies Act 2006: identity, registered office, directors, People with Significant Control (PSCs), charges, confirmation statements, and filed accounts. Most of this information is free.

Two main entry points expose the British business registry:

• The Companies House public service at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk for one-off lookups
• The Companies House API (developer.company-information.service.gov.uk) for programmatic queries, including a `/search/companies` endpoint frequently used as a UK supplier company database API

Certified copies (good-standing certificates, certified accounts) can be ordered separately through the portal.

The UK combines transparency, accessibility, and machine-readable filings, which makes it a strong source for KYB and AML due diligence.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) — described as the most significant reform to Companies House in its 170-year history — is progressively transforming the registry from a passive document store into an active gatekeeper. Since March 2024, Companies House can query, reject, and remove suspect filings. Since November 2025, directors and PSCs must have their identity verified before taking effect. These changes materially improve data quality and add a layer of verifiable trust to officer and beneficial-ownership records — directly relevant for KYB and AML workflows.

Official Registers

Companies House

Companies House operates a single national registry covering private limited companies (Ltd), public limited companies (Plc), limited liability partnerships (LLPs), community interest companies (CICs), and companies limited by guarantee. Sole traders and unincorporated firms are out of scope (they sit with HMRC, see below).

The registry exposes:

• Monthly snapshots of every live company (status, SIC codes, last filing dates) as ZIP files in CSV or XML
• XBRL accounts feeds, refreshed daily and monthly
• The Companies House API, with REST endpoints for company profile, officers, filing history, charges, and document metadata, authenticated by API key

When certified or physical documentation is needed (statutory certificates, certified accounts, good-standing statements), customers can order them via the web portal. Pricing follows the official fees and varies by service tier.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

A single Companies House register covers all four UK nations, but the company registration number prefix indicates the country of incorporation:

KYB workflows that rely on the prefix can quickly route an entity to the right jurisdictional treatment (Scottish insolvency law, Northern Ireland-specific filings).

PSC register

Since April 2016, every UK company must declare its People with Significant Control (PSCs): individuals owning more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or otherwise exercising control. PSC data is published as a standalone data product alongside the main company record. PSCs serve as the UK's beneficial-ownership disclosure regime.

HMRC and unincorporated entities

Sole traders register only with HMRC, not Companies House. The HMRC register is not publicly accessible, so structured sole-trader data is rare in the UK.

Registration and Publication Requirements

Sole traders

Sole traders register with HMRC for tax purposes, not with Companies House. No public-facing data is exposed.

Companies (Ltd, Plc, LLP, CIC, etc.)

All incorporated entities must file:

• Confirmation statements (annual update of key information)
• Annual accounts, typically within 9 months of the financial year-end
• Event-driven filings for changes to directors, registered office, share capital, or PSCs

Failure to file carries strikes from the register and, for officers, criminal liability for persistent non-compliance.

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA)

The ECCTA is the most substantial overhaul of UK company law since the Companies Act 2006, enacted in response to long-standing concerns about the use of UK companies for economic crime. Its reforms roll out in phases:

Since March 2024 — Active gatekeeping: Companies House can now query filings before accepting them, reject documents that appear false or misleading, and proactively remove information that should not have been registered. This marks the end of Companies House as a purely passive repository: it is now an active regulator of the information it holds.

Since November 18, 2025 — Mandatory identity verification: All new directors, PSCs, and anyone filing on behalf of a company must verify their identity with Companies House before appointments or filings take effect. Existing directors and PSCs have a 12-month transition period and must verify by November 2026. Separately, companies are no longer required to maintain their own internal registers of directors, secretaries, or PSCs — the centralized Companies House register now fulfils this function for all incorporated entities.

From November 2026 — Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs): Third-party agents filing on behalf of companies must be registered as ACSPs. Only verified officers, employees, or registered ACSPs will be able to submit filings. This raises the accountability bar for corporate service providers and strengthens the audit trail for all company filings.

For KYB and AML professionals, the practical effect is that director and PSC data from Companies House becomes progressively more trustworthy — backed by verified identities rather than self-declared information, and subject to proactive quality checks that previously did not exist.

Associations

Charitable and member-led associations are usually subject to the same Companies House regime when incorporated, and to the Charity Commission for charitable status. Smaller associations with income under £5,000 may be exempt from charity registration; most still register with Companies House because banks and counterparties expect a company number.

Once registered, associations must keep their information up to date, file accounts, and declare PSCs (or confirm none exist).

With Topograph

Topograph queries the Companies House public API and parses filing documents into structured data, exposing the full UK business registry through one endpoint. The same call returns identity, officers, PSCs, charges, and filing history.

Available Data

Company Profile

• Registered name, number, legal form, incorporation date
• Company registration number issued by Companies House, with country prefix (`SC` Scotland, `NI` Northern Ireland, `OC`/`SO` LLP variants, etc.). 8-character format.
• Registered office address, status (active, dissolved, in liquidation)
• SIC codes (Standard Industrial Classification, 5-digit), with automatic mapping to NACE and ISIC
• Confirmation date and next accounts due date
• Previous names, charges, filings

Legal Representatives

• Directors, secretaries, and LLP members with names, appointments, and resignations
• Role and occupation, as filed with Companies House

Filing History

• Complete record of filed documents: annual returns, changes of address or officers, mortgages, special resolutions
• Documents retrievable via the API's document metadata URLs

UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Ownership)

• UK PSCs (Persons of Significant Control) stand in for UBOs, publicly disclosed when control thresholds are met
• Topograph retrieves and flags PSC data, including ceased PSC entries for historical analysis

Available Documents

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