Guidance

Companies House data products

How to access public data from the Companies House register using our data products.

Company data product

The company data product is a free monthly snapshot of information for live companies on the public register. This includes:

  • basic information including company type and registered office address
  • the nature of business or standard industrial classification (SIC)
  • company status, such as ‘live’ or ‘dissolved’
  • date of last accounts or confirmation statement filed
  • date of next accounts or confirmation statement due
  • previous company names

Access the free company data to get bulk downloads of UK company data.

The bulk snapshot is split into a number of downloadable ZIP files which contain data in comma separated values (CSV) format.

The snapshot contents are compiled up to the end of the previous month and made available for download within 5 working days of the previous month end.

Find more information about the data returned in our Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) Customer Guide (PDF, 370 KB, 9 pages)

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 Companies House.

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.

A new monthly file is added within 5 days of the end of the previous month.

Data is only available for electronically filed accounts, which currently stands at about 60% of the 2.2 million accounts filed at Companies House each year.

People with significant control (PSC) data product

The PSC data product provides a snapshot as a single data file in JSON format and contains a full list of PSCs provided to Companies House.

Access our PSC data product.

Uniform resource identifiers (URI)

Our free URI service gives access to basic company details using a simple uniform resource identifier (URI) for each company on our register.

The URI is a unique web address for each company. Simply use the company number within the URI structure: http://data.companieshouse.gov.uk/doc/company/{companynumber}

Example Company number 02050399 would be represented as: http://data.companieshouse.gov.uk/doc/company/02050399

Use the URI address with your internet browser and it will display the company data as a HTML page. You can also return other data formats including RDF, JSON, XML, CSV and YAML.

The URI can be embedded as a link on your own website or the data can be used in your own software.

Find more information about the service and the data returned in our Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) Customer Guide (PDF, 370 KB, 9 pages)

XML gateway search service

Our XML gateway offers access to Companies House data and documents as a computer to computer search service.

Data and documents are requested and delivered using XML (eXtensible Markup Language). This will allow users of the service to search company records from within their own software.

Standard XML data schemas must be used as defined in the interface specification which can be found on our dedicated XML gateway output page.

Users must carry out a test to confirm they can request and receive data before an XML output account can be opened.

There’s a monthly subscription fee of £4.70, plus additional charges for data or documents requested. Users get 15% off their total monthly invoice value. Basic company information is available for free.

If you’d like to know more about development or testing, you can contact xml@companieshouse.gov.uk.

Searches on our Find and update company information service

The DVD directory has been replaced by the advanced company search.

The dissolved company name DVD has been replaced by the online dissolved search index.

Using Companies House data

Companies House is required to make data about companies and their officials available for public inspection under the Companies Act 2006.

We impose no rules or requirements on how the information on the public register is used, and we’re not responsible for your use of the company data. You are responsible for complying with any applicable data protection, copyright and other legislation and regulations.

You should check that you’ve met all the necessary legal requirements before you publish any information.

For more information, see Companies House public task and Crown copyright and Companies House personal information charter.

Updates to this page

Published 18 June 2019
Last updated 25 October 2022 + show all updates
  1. Added disclaimer about using Companies House data.

  2. The DVD directory has been withdrawn. It’s been replaced by the advanced company search on our ‘Find and update company information’ service.

  3. The dissolved company name DVD has been withdrawn. It’s been replaced by the online dissolved search index on our Find and update company information service.

  4. First published.

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