Companies House: The Complete Guide to the UK Company Register

What Is Companies House?

Companies House is the official UK government register of companies. Every limited company, LLP, and certain other business entity incorporated in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland must register with Companies House and file regular returns.

The register holds records for roughly 5.3 to 5.7 million active companies, with around 800,000 new incorporations per year - approximately 1,500 to 2,000 new companies registered on every working day. All data is public by law and free to access.

What Information Does Companies House Hold?

For each registered company, Companies House maintains:

• Company name and registration number - the unique identifier assigned at incorporation
• Registered office address - the official address for service of documents
• Company type - Ltd, PLC, LLP, Community Interest Company, etc.
• Date of incorporation - when the company was formed
• SIC codes - Standard Industrial Classification codes describing the company's business activities (see our SIC codes guide for a full explanation)
• Directors and officers - names, dates of birth (month/year only), nationality and occupation
• Persons with significant control (PSC) - individuals or entities with 25%+ ownership or voting rights
• Annual accounts - financial statements filed each year
• Confirmation statements - annual declarations that company details are up to date
• Company status - Active, Dissolved, In Liquidation, etc.

Reading a Companies House Record - A Worked Example

Here is how to interpret the key fields when you pull up a typical company record. Imagine searching for "Apex Digital Consulting Ltd" at our free company search.

• Company number: 15412387 - an eight-digit number assigned sequentially at incorporation. Numbers in the 15 million range indicate late 2023 or early 2024 registration. The number is permanent and never reused.
• Incorporation date: 14 November 2023 - the date the company came into legal existence. A company claiming ten years' trading history but incorporated three months ago is a red flag.
• Registered office: 20 Farringdon Street, London, EC4A 4AB - the legal address, not necessarily where the business operates. Many small companies use a formation agent's or accountant's address here.
• SIC codes: 62020 (Information technology consultancy activities) - SIC codes are four or five digit identifiers classifying what a company does. A company can hold up to four. They are self-declared and unverified, so treat them as indicative rather than definitive.
• Officers - the director's name, a partial date of birth (month and year only), nationality, and declared occupation. Clicking through shows all other companies they direct - a useful signal of serial entrepreneurship or connected-party relationships. See our guide to how to check a company director in the UK.
• Persons with significant control (PSC) - names anyone owning more than 25% of shares or voting rights. Our guide to PSC and people with significant control explains what each nature-of-control category means.
• Filing history - a chronological list of every document submitted. Gaps in history, persistent late filings, or compulsory strike-off notices are warning signs worth investigating before entering a commercial relationship.
• Confirmation statement - the annual declaration that the company's registered details remain accurate. Not the same as accounts. A missed deadline puts the company at risk of being struck off the register.

If you need to verify a company's legitimacy in more depth, our guide to how to check a UK company walks through the full due diligence process step by step.

How to Search Companies House

The easiest way to search is via the Companies House web service. You can search by:

• Company name (or part of a name)
• Company registration number
• Officer name

However, the official search has significant limitations. You cannot search by:

• Industry or SIC code
• Location or geography
• Date of incorporation
• Financial data or turnover

For industry and location filtering, try our free company search tool or the SIC code lookup to find the right classification codes before you search. If you want to browse companies registered in the last few days, explore newly registered companies here.

This is where tools like NewcoHunter come in - we index the entire Companies House register and let you search by SIC code, location, and incorporation date, making it easy to find companies that match your exact criteria.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023

The most significant reform to Companies House in its history is being rolled out under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA). The legislation transforms Companies House from a passive filing recipient into an active gatekeeper with investigative and enforcement powers.

What ECCTA changes

The key reforms being phased in include:

• Identity verification for directors and PSCs - anyone registering a new company or taking on a directorship must verify their identity before their appointment takes effect. The requirement is being phased in for existing officeholders too. Third-party agents (formation agents, accountants, solicitors) must be registered with a supervised anti-money-laundering body.
• New powers to query and reject filings - Companies House can now challenge information it has reasonable grounds to doubt, reject filings that appear false or misleading, and annotate the register to flag discrepancies. Previously, the registrar had almost no power to challenge what was submitted.
• Stronger registered office rules - a PO box can no longer serve as a registered office. The address must be one where documents can genuinely be delivered and acknowledged.
• Accounts reform - small and micro companies will no longer be able to file abridged accounts that omit the profit and loss account, making more financial detail publicly visible.
• Suppression of personal information - individuals can apply to suppress certain personal details from the public register if they face a credible risk of harm.

What this means for researchers and data users

For anyone using Companies House data for prospecting, due diligence, or compliance, ECCTA matters in three ways. Identity verification means director and PSC data will become more reliable over time, reducing fictitious or impersonated officeholders. Annotated entries and flagged filings add a new layer of information to watch for when reviewing a company record. And richer accounts data for small companies will make financial profiling of SMEs more feasible.

The rollout is phased and ongoing. Check the Companies House news page for the current status of each measure.

Companies House API

Companies House provides a free public API that allows developers to access company data programmatically. The API offers:

• Company search - find companies by name
• Company profile - full details for a specific company
• Officers - directors and secretaries
• Filing history - all documents filed
• Charges - mortgages and charges registered against the company
• Streaming API - real-time feed of new filings and incorporations

NewcoHunter is built on this API, processing the streaming data to identify new company registrations as they happen.

How Businesses Use Companies House Data

Sales and marketing teams filter new incorporations by SIC code and location to reach businesses that match their ideal customer profile within days of formation. NewcoHunter monitors the register and alerts you to new registrations matching your criteria, so your team never has to check manually.

Compliance and legal teams use it for due diligence and KYC checks - verifying a company exists, reviewing its directors and persons with significant control, and checking its filing history before onboarding a new client or supplier.

Accountants and business services monitor new incorporations to offer services to newly formed companies that need accounting, insurance, and banking.

Investors and analysts track incorporation trends by sector and geography to spot emerging markets.

Companies House vs. Other Data Providers

Feature	Companies House (Direct)	NewcoHunter	Endole	Creditsafe
Cost	Free	From free	Paid	Paid
Search by SIC code	No	Yes	Limited	Limited
Search by location	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
New company alerts	No	Yes	No	Yes
Credit data	No	No	Yes	Yes
API access	Yes	Coming soon	Yes	Yes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Companies House free to use?

Yes. Searching the register and viewing company records is completely free via the Companies House website or public API. Certain historical documents predating digital filing may carry a small retrieval fee, but the vast majority of current filings cost nothing to access.

Can I see who owns a company?

Yes, in most cases. The PSC (Persons with Significant Control) register lists anyone with more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or who exercises significant influence over a company. Some companies - particularly those listed on a regulated market - are exempt. Our guide to PSC and people with significant control covers the different categories and what they mean.

How often is Companies House updated?

The register is updated continuously. New incorporations and filings are typically published within a few hours of being processed, and the streaming API publishes events in near real-time. The speed at which a company's details reflect reality depends on when its directors file updates - a change of registered office submitted by post can take several days to appear.

What is a confirmation statement?

A confirmation statement (previously the Annual Return) is a yearly filing that confirms the company's registered details are accurate - registered office, SIC codes, directors, shareholders, and PSC information. It is not the same as accounts. Every company must file one at least once every 12 months; a missed deadline puts the company at risk of being struck off the register. A recent confirmation statement is a positive sign the company is being actively maintained.

Can I be notified when a new company is registered in my sector?

Not via Companies House directly - the official register has no alerts or saved searches. This is exactly what NewcoHunter is built for. You set up a saved search with your chosen SIC codes and location filters, and we send a weekly digest of every new match drawn from the Companies House register. See how it works.

Getting Started

If you need to find new UK companies by industry and location, try NewcoHunter for free. We process every new Companies House registration and make it searchable within hours, with weekly email alerts for your saved searches. Use our free SIC code lookup to find the right classification codes before you build your first search.