Companies House search

What Companies House records

Companies House registers UK companies and publishes the information they are required to file. That includes incorporation details, registered office addresses, officers, persons with significant control, annual accounts, confirmation statements, registered charges and insolvency notices.

The register is a record of what has been filed. Companies House does not audit or verify most of it, so entries can be incomplete, out of date or, occasionally, wrong. Its purpose is transparency about who is behind a registered company, not an assessment of whether that company is a good one to deal with.

• Company identity: name, number, status, type and jurisdiction
• Addresses: the registered office, and a service address for officers
• People: directors, secretaries and persons with significant control
• Filings: accounts, confirmation statements and the filing history
• Security: registered charges and any insolvency information

How to search the register effectively

Start with the company registration number if you have one, because it identifies a single company and never changes. Otherwise search the name and narrow the results using the registered office address and the incorporation date.

Watch for near-identical names. Groups often register several similarly named entities, and a name can be reused by an unrelated company once an earlier one is dissolved. The number is the only unambiguous identifier.

• Check for a missing SC or NI prefix if a number returns nothing
• Restore leading zeros: 00445790 is not the same string as 445790
• Search a former name if a contract predates a rebrand
• Compare the registered office before assuming two records are the same business

How this site relates to Companies House

Company Search UK is an independent service. It is not Companies House, it is not part of the UK Government, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.

The same underlying public data is available directly from Companies House free of charge. What this site adds is a fast search experience, a readable company summary and, if you want one, a formatted PDF document that gathers the main register sections into a single file you can keep. Our data sources page sets out exactly where the information comes from and how current it is.

What you can see here without paying

The company summary is free, unlimited and requires no account.

• Registered company name
• Company registration number
• Company status, such as active or dissolved
• Incorporation date
• Company type
• Jurisdiction
• Registered office address
• Previous company names
• Nature of business and SIC codes

Why people look up the register

• Confirming the exact legal entity named on a quote, invoice or contract
• Checking whether a company is still active before paying it
• Finding a registered office address for correspondence or legal notices
• Establishing how long a company has existed and what it says it does
• Keeping a dated record of the register entry for a client or audit file

The optional PDF report

If you need more than the summary in a form you can keep, the UK Company Information Report collects officers, persons with significant control, filing position, charges and insolvency information into a single dated A4 PDF. It is a convenience product: retrieval, formatting and a permanent copy of public information.

It is not a certified or official Companies House document, and it is not a credit report. See the sample company report for a section-by-section breakdown before you order.

Free website search compared with the paid PDF report

Searching this site and viewing a company summary is free. The optional PDF report is paid, and what you are paying for is convenience: retrieval, formatting, a dated snapshot and a document you can download and keep. The underlying information is public and is also available directly from Companies House at no charge.

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

• UK Company SearchFree UK company search by name or company number. View company status, registered office, incorporation date, company type and SIC codes from the Companies House public register.
• Companies House ReportDownload a formatted PDF report built from Companies House public register data, covering company details, officers, control, filings and charges. Independent, one-off price, no subscription.
• Data Sources and UpdatesWhere Company Search UK gets its company information, how often it is refreshed, the licensing that applies and the known limits of public register data.
• Check Filing HistoryHow to read a UK company's filing history, what the common filing types mean, and what a company's filing pattern does and does not tell you.
• Company Number SearchSearch by UK company registration number to find the exact company on the public register free of charge, including SC numbers for Scotland and NI numbers for Northern Ireland.
• Company reportsThe optional downloadable PDF report and what it costs.
• UK Business SearchSearch UK businesses on the Companies House register. Confirm the registered entity behind a trading name, check its status and see registered office details free of charge.
• Company Details SearchFind the registered details of a UK company: legal name, registration number, status, incorporation date, company type, registered office and SIC codes, free of charge.