Companies House: A Beginner's Guide to the UK Company Register

What is Companies House?

Companies House is an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade. Its job is to incorporate and dissolve limited companies, to maintain the public register, and to make that information available to anyone who wants to see it.

Unlike some countries where company data is locked behind paywalls or requires registration to access, Companies House operates on the principle of public transparency. Anyone can search for any company — no account needed.

What information does Companies House hold?

The register contains a significant amount of data on every company:

Company details: Name, registered number, date of incorporation, registered office address, company type, status (active/dissolved/in liquidation), and SIC codes (industry classification).
Officers: Directors and company secretaries — names, dates of birth (month/year only for privacy), nationalities, appointment and resignation dates.
Persons with Significant Control (PSC): Individuals or entities that own or control more than 25% of the company. This is a relatively recent requirement (2016) aimed at improving corporate transparency.
Filing history: Every document filed — annual accounts, confirmation statements, changes to directors or registered office, resolutions, and charges.
Accounts: Most companies must file annual accounts. Small companies can file abbreviated accounts (less detail), while larger companies must file full accounts including profit and loss.
Charges: Registered security interests — mortgages, debentures, and other charges over company assets.
Insolvency records: Administration, liquidation, CVAs, and receivership filings.
Disqualified directors: A separate register of individuals banned from acting as company directors.

What Companies House doesn't do

It's important to understand the limits of the register:

It doesn't verify accuracy: Companies House processes what it's given. It doesn't audit accounts or check that directors' details are correct. Fraudulent filings occasionally slip through.
It doesn't provide credit ratings: The register shows charges and insolvency, but it doesn't assign credit scores or payment-risk ratings. That's what credit reference agencies do.
It doesn't track trading addresses: A company's registered office is its legal address — not necessarily where it trades. Many companies use their accountant's address as the registered office.

How to search Companies House

You can search directly on the Companies House website (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk), but the raw interface is designed for looking up individual companies one at a time — not for risk assessment.

ScoutCompany sits on top of Companies House data and adds the risk layer: banned director flags, insolvency screening, co-located company detection, and a visual dashboard that highlights problems at a glance. You get the same Companies House data — just organised for decision-making rather than raw browsing.

The Open Government Licence

Companies House data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which means anyone can use, copy, and republish it — including commercially — as long as they acknowledge the source. ScoutCompany does exactly that: we pull from Companies House, postcodes.io, and other open data sources, and present the information in a clearer format.

What's new at Companies House?

Companies House has been given expanded powers under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Key changes include:

Identity verification: New directors and PSCs will need to verify their identity (phased rollout from 2025−2026).
Stronger enforcement: Companies House can now query, reject, and remove suspicious filings — not just process them.
More data: Additional transparency requirements for limited partnerships and overseas entities.

These changes mean the register will become more reliable over time — but they also mean more complexity. ScoutCompany will track these changes and surface the data that matters.