UK company data API: Companies House number lookup, officers and PSC

A customer types a Companies House number or the first letters of a name; your form fills in the legal name, company type, status and registered office, and the same key reads the officers, the persons with significant control, the corporate events, the insolvency notices and the strike-off signals behind the record. One response shape, the same as every other country the API covers.

What you get, and what you do not

The United Kingdom is one of the fuller countries in the API: the company record keyed on the Companies House number, its officers and persons with significant control (PSC), corporate events, a registry-compliance signal, corporate insolvency notices and public-procurement awards. There is no monitoring for the UK, and beneficial ownership covers UK PSC only.

• Company record: yes, keyed on the Companies House number (GET /companies/search, GET /companies/{id}).
• Officers: yes, as appointments on the company record and through GET /people/search?country=GB.
• PSC beneficial owners: yes, UK only. The persons with significant control come back as appointments flagged is_beneficial_owner.
• Corporate events: yes, the Companies House filing history and Gazette notices typed into a fixed list of event types (GET /company-events/search and /company-events/timeline).
• Registry-compliance signal: yes, strike-off proposals (strike_off_proposed) and overdue accounts (accounts_overdue) (risk_flag_type=registry_compliance, include=risk_flags).
• Insolvency notices: yes. The United Kingdom is one of the nine insolvency markets (FR, DE, GB, AT, CH, NO, FI, US, NL), corporate only (GET /insolvency/search and POST /insolvency/check).
• Public procurement: yes, awards from Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, linked to the company record (GET /procurement/awards?country=GB).
• Monitoring: no. The monitor endpoint covers Spain, Ireland and Poland.
• Share capital: not published in the registry feed, so it is empty.

Searching officers by name and reading corporate events need a Starter plan or above; a free key has 25 trial calls a month on each.

What the UK record gives your product

• Exact match on the company number: company_number=00445790 with country=GB. The number is eight characters: eight digits padded with leading zeros for England and Wales, or two letters and six digits (SC Scotland, NI Northern Ireland, OC, SO and NC limited liability partnerships, LP, FC and others). Keep the leading zeros and the capital letters; the match is exact.
• No check digit: a Companies House number carries none, so a well-formed number can still belong to no company. Only the lookup says whether it exists.
• Autocomplete by name: a normalised, partial match ranked by a match score, one call per keystroke.
• The fields a form needs: legal name, company type with its full label, status, registered office, SIC codes, previous names with their dates, the founding and dissolution dates, and the next accounts and confirmation-statement due dates.
• The register's own state: status_canonical reads the Companies House status, including active_strike_off_pending for an active company with a strike-off proposal pending.
• A new-company feed: founded_after= with country=GB lists companies by incorporation date, paged with a cursor.

Validate before you call

There is no arithmetic to run, but the shape is checkable: eight digits, or two letters and six digits. A short JavaScript function on the full page pads a bare number the way Companies House prints it and rejects anything else, so a typo in the format never costs a call. A passing check says the number is well-formed, never that the company exists.

Beyond the record

• Officers and PSC: the company record carries appointments with role_type, action, dates and the person; is_beneficial_owner is true for a person with significant control. GET /people/search?name=...&country=GB finds officers and PSCs by name. Beneficial ownership covers UK PSC only.
• Corporate events: GET /company-events/timeline?country=GB&company_number=00445790 lists the filings and Gazette notices of one company, each with event_type, the raw Companies House code in act_type and the date. A raw code such as OFFICER_CHANGE still works as an event_type filter.
• Registry-compliance signal: GET /companies/search?risk_flag_type=registry_compliance&country=GB lists companies with a strike-off proposal or overdue accounts. It is a compliance signal, not an insolvency or a dissolution: the company is still on the register.
• Insolvency notices: GET /insolvency/search?country=GB&company_number=00445790 matches the Companies House number printed on the notice. POST /insolvency/check screens up to 100 counterparties in one call. Corporate only; an empty result is not proof of solvency.
• Public procurement: GET /procurement/awards?country=GB&nif=00445790 takes the Companies House number the supplier published. The United Kingdom publishes a value on part of its awards, and amounts in pounds are converted at the ECB annual average rate for the award year, with the published currency kept.

Weighing it against the Companies House API

The Companies House API is free and is the source of the register; for a UK-only use case that fits inside its limits, it may be all you need. This API is the alternative when you also need other countries under one key and one response shape, typed corporate events, insolvency notices, the strike-off signal and procurement on the same call shape, or a volume the free API does not allow.

What the UK does not carry

No monitoring watchlists, no share capital, no beneficial ownership outside the UK PSC register, no financial statements and no credit scores. The UK record is refreshed daily; last_seen_date can lag the register by up to a month between snapshots.

Pricing

The United Kingdom is included in every tier at no upcharge. Free — 14-day trial. 1,000 API calls per month, 10 requests/minute, no credit card. Subscribing keeps the same key working. Then Starter at €9.99/month, Professional at €29.99/month and Scale at €99.99/month, monthly or annual.

FAQ

How do I look up a UK company by Companies House number from an API? Call GET /companies/search?company_number=00445790&country=GB. The match is exact, so keep the leading zeros and the capital letters of a prefix such as SC or OC. There is no check digit, so a well-formed number can still belong to no company.

Do I need the leading zeros? Yes. 445790 and 00445790 are different strings and the register holds the eight-character form. Pad a bare number to eight digits before you send it.

Does it include persons with significant control? Yes, for UK companies only. They come back as appointments flagged is_beneficial_owner, and GET /people/search finds officers and PSCs by name. Searching officers by name needs a Starter plan or above; a free key has 25 trial calls a month.

Does it list UK insolvency notices? Yes. The United Kingdom is one of the nine insolvency markets (FR, DE, GB, AT, CH, NO, FI, US, NL), corporate only. GET /insolvency/search matches the company number printed on the notice, and POST /insolvency/check screens up to 100 counterparties in one call. An empty result is not proof of solvency.

Can I monitor UK companies? Not with the monitor endpoint, which covers Spain, Ireland and Poland. For the UK you poll: the events timeline for one company, the strike-off signal, or POST /insolvency/check for a list of counterparties.

Is it an alternative to the Companies House API? For UK-only use inside the free API's limits you may not need one. This API is the alternative when you also need other countries under one key, typed events, insolvency notices and the strike-off signal on one call shape.

How much does the UK company data API cost? The United Kingdom is included in every tier at no upcharge. Free is a 14-day trial with 1,000 API calls per month and no credit card; subscribing keeps the same key working. Paid tiers run from EUR 9.99 to EUR 99.99 a month, monthly or annual.

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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Companies House, UK.