FOI release

A list of small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in the UK

Published 6 February 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-foi-responses-january-to-june-2022/a-list-of-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-sme-in-the-uk

1. Date released

27 June 2022

2.  Summary of request

A list of small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in the UK.

3.  Information Released

Companies House (CH) does not analyse information on the size of companies. Under current legislation, directors are not obliged to provide CH with the size of the company using number of employees, balance sheet total or turnover.

Please note, when categorising our account types, we are reliant upon the balance sheet statements provided and the relevant components that make up the accounts (e.g., directors report, profit and loss, auditors report, etc)

However, CH does offer a free data product which you can interrogate yourself. Please be aware that the information contained in the free data product relates to companies currently live on the register – Companies that have been dissolved will not be shown.

The following data fields are available within 6 downloadable CSV files:

  • Company Name
  • Company Number
  • Register Office address (8 address fields)
  • Company Category
  • Company Status
  • Country of Origin
  • Dissolution Date - Not relevant as no dissolved company details are held on the free data products
  • Incorporation Date
  • Accounting Reference Date (2 fields - Day; Month)
  • Accounts Next due date
  • Accounts last made-up date
  • Accounts Category
  • Annual Returns Next due date
  • Annual returns Last made-up date
  • Number of Mortgage Charges
  • Number Mortgages Outstanding
  • Number of Mortgages Part Satisfied
  • Number Mortgages Satisfied
  • SIC Codes (4 fields - SIC 1 to SIC 4)
  • Limited Partnerships Number of General Partners
  • Limited Partnerships Number Limited Partners
  • URI address
  • Change of Name Date
  • Company names (previous - max 10 occurrences)

All 7 files need to be downloaded to have a complete snapshot of The Register.
An updated snapshot is taken at the end of each month and made available on our website during the first week of the following month.

You could then sort by: Accounts Category. This may give an indication of the size of a company, but please be aware that a ‘small’ company may choose to file full accounts.

Please use the link below to access the Free Company Data Product on our website:

http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html

An additional product that you may find useful would be the accounts data product.

The accounts data product is a free downloadable ZIP file, which contains the individual data files (instance documents) of company accounts filed electronically at CH.

The data is provided in extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format.

Access the daily accounts data files or the monthly accounts data files for the last year.

The individual files within the ZIP file will be in one of the following formats:

  • inline XBRL format (.html file extension)
  • XBRL format (.xml file extension)

A new daily file is added each morning over a 5-day period (Tuesday to Saturday). Each file contains the accounts data registered on the previous day.

Data is only available for electronically filed accounts, which currently stands at about 75% of the 2.2 million accounts filed at CH each year.

For historic information, images of accounts can be found via the Companies House Service (CHS). The Find and update company information (CHS) service makes all the public data we hold on companies available free of charge. There is no need to register to view company information through this service.

This free data can also be accessed through our application program interface (API). This allows both consumers and technology providers access to real time updates on companies.

Alternatively, the information required may be available from the Office of National Statistics.

Please see link below: https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/bulletins/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation/2021

I have not provided this information to you, as under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 any information that is accessible to the applicant, is exempt information under the Act.

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