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🇬🇧 Business Register in the United Kingdom

Pierre-Henri Janssens
Author

General Overview

The UK provides one of the most open and digitally-advanced corporate registers globally. Companies House — an executive agency under the Department for Business and Trade—administers the public register for all incorporated entities under the Companies Act 2006. It publishes a variety of company information, including financial statements, legal officers, and filings, many of which are available for free or via affordable data products.

Access comes via two main routes: the official portal and a RESTful API for real-time queries and document retrieval gov.uk. Certified copies or physical documents can be ordered separately. Overall, the UK combines transparency, accessibility, and digital completeness, making it ideal for KYB & AML due diligence.

Official Registers

In the UK, Companies House operates a unified registry covering private and public limited companies, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), community interest companies (CICs), and companies limited by guarantee. Sole traders and unincorporated firms are not included, as they're outside the scope of the Companies Act.

Publicly available data is structured into monthly snapshots of live companies—covering basics like status, SIC codes, filing dates—and daily or monthly XBRL feeds for filed accounts. Users can freely download these ZIP files in CSV or XML formats.

For on-demand lookups, the Companies House API provides endpoints to retrieve individual company profiles, officer and filing history, and real-time document metadata, all under a REST interface authenticated via API key.

When certified or physical documentation is needed—such as statutory certificates, certified accounts, or good-standing statements—UK users can order them via the web portal. Standard certified document services start at £15 (documents) and £50 for express certified accounts, with incorporation documents at £30 standard, £100 express gov.uk.

Registration requirements

For sole proprietors

Sole proprietors (or Sole Traders in the UK) are not required to register with Companies House, but only with HMRC. Unfortunately, this register is not publicly accessible. As a result, it is generally rare to find information on sole proprietors in the UK.

For associations

Associations are generally subject to strict registration requirements. Some exceptions exist if the amount of income managed is below £5,000, but in practice, the vast majority of associations are indeed listed in the Companies House register.

They are therefore required to register, keep their information up to date, file their financial statements, and declare their beneficial owners.

For companies

The registration requirements are strict. All companies (LTD, PLC etc.) must file:

  • Confirmation statements (annual update)
  • Annual accounts (usually within 9 months of year-end)
  • Detailed filings when there are changes to directors, registered office, share capital, or Person of Significant Control

Since April 2016, holders of significant control (People with Significant Control, PSCs) must be registered and publicly visible in their own data product.

With Semaphore

Semaphore harnesses the power of Companies House data through automated pipelines and industry-grade APIs, offering seamless access to structured UK company information, ideal for compliance workflows.

Available Data

Company Profile

  • Registered name, number, legal form, incorporation date
  • Company registration number:
    • Unique identifier issued by Companies House.
    • Format: it depends on the company type and the country where the company is registered (England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland). It is usually 2 characters + 6 digits (but may vary)
  • Registered office address, status (active/dissolved)
  • SIC codes:
    • It stands for Standard Industrial Classification. Semaphore does an automatic mapping on NACE and ISIC codifications.
    • Format: a 5-digit number
  • Confirmation and next accounts dates
  • Additional metadata (previous names, charges, filings)

Legal representatives

  • Directors, secretaries, LLP members with names, appointments, and resignations
  • Precision: in the UK, legal representatives have a role and an occupation which is a more details on the person's functions

Filing History

  • Complete records of all filed documents: annual returns, changes of address/officers, mortgages, etc.
  • Documents are retrievable via document metadata URLs using the API

Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO)

  • In the UK, PSCs (Person of Significant Controls) stand in for UBOs—publicly disclosed if meeting control thresholds
  • Semaphore supports automated retrieval and flagging of PSC data

Available documents

Document typeLocal nameSource
Register extract
Companies House
UBO
Person of Significant Control
Companies House
Articles of associations
Memorandum and Articles of Association
Companies House
Financial statements
Accounts
Companies House