What our UK company report includes
Our UK reports draw on sources including Companies House filings, the Insolvency Service for company-distress events, and the court system. Coverage of any individual source depends on what the subject company has filed and what is publicly accessible at the time of the search. English-language filings are presented directly.
Identity & registration
- ✓ Companies House number (8-digit) and registered office
- ✓ Registered name and trading names
- ✓ Legal form (Ltd, Plc, LLP, CIC, LP, branch of overseas company)
- ✓ Date of incorporation and SIC code activities
- ✓ Companies House active / dormant / proposal-to-strike-off status
- ✓ ECCTA 2023 identity-verification standing
People & ownership
- ✓ Directors with appointment dates and country of usual residence
- ✓ Company secretary where appointed
- ✓ Persons with Significant Control (PSC) register
- ✓ Shareholders (private) or major shareholders (public)
- ✓ Issued share capital and share-class structure
- ✓ Parent company and ultimate controlling interest
Financial & trading
- ✓ Filed annual accounts in GBP (full / abridged / micro / dormant)
- ✓ SIC business activity codes
- ✓ Audit-firm relationship for medium and large companies
- ✓ Risk indicator and calculated credit limit
Risk & public records
- ✓ County Court Judgements (CCJs) and High Court judgements
- ✓ Liquidation, administration, CVA and dissolution events
- ✓
Debt enforcement events where in the public record
Note on UK data: Companies House is free, public, and one of the most data-rich corporate registries in the world. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 has tightened identity-verification requirements for directors and PSCs through a phased rollout. Investigated reports add value where operating substance, group context or director-history needs human assessment beyond what the register publishes.
Why verify a UK company?
The UK is one of the easiest jurisdictions in the world to verify a counterparty in basic terms: Companies House publishes directors, persons with significant control, registered office, filed accounts and a deep historical record for free. For overseas counterparties this means a great deal of standard due diligence can be done from public sources in minutes. The value of an investigated report concentrates on the specific areas where Companies House data alone is not enough: small-company filings that show very limited financial detail, the gap between an active registered office and substantive trading operations, group-structure complexity, and director histories spanning multiple companies and previous distress events.
Small-company and micro-entity filings are the most common interpretation issue. UK accounting law lets the smallest companies file abridged or micro accounts that show only an abbreviated balance sheet with no profit and loss disclosure. For supplier qualification or trade-credit decisions, this means the headline filed figures often understate the meaningful picture. Investigated reports add an estimated trading view, a sectoral comparison and an on-the-ground confirmation of the operating reality behind the abbreviated public filing.
Director-history screening is the other area where UK verification adds disproportionate value. The Companies House director record links every individual to their full appointment history: current and resigned, active and dissolved companies. A director with a pattern of short-lived companies, recent dissolutions or proximity to disqualification proceedings is a meaningful signal that the basic register view does not show. Director-history information is included alongside the PSC and shareholder review.
For supplier qualification, distribution agreements, trade credit, counterparty onboarding, M&A due diligence or any substantive commercial relationship with a UK counterparty, most low-risk relationships are sufficiently served by the financial and credit status information normally available.