Your personal information on the Companies House register
What the company register is, what details you need to give to Companies House, and how the public can access this information.
See separate guidance on how to:
About the Companies House register
Companies House is the registry for all UK limited companies.
In return for the benefits of limited liability, your company must be open and transparent. When you set up or ‘incorporate’ a company, we review and register certain information about your company and make it available to the public.
Your company must send us information about its activities, annual accounts and who controls it. You must also give details of its directors, who are responsible for running the company. Your company is expected to keep these details up to date during its lifetime.
This collection of public information is commonly known as the Companies House register or ‘public register’. The Companies House register is available worldwide for the public to search online free of charge.
You must keep the information on our register up to date, so that it’s useful to anybody looking at your company’s records. This includes those who want to do business with your company.
Anybody who becomes a director or officer of a company must be prepared for some of their details to be publicly available. It’s important to understand what information we have a duty to make available to the public. You must carefully consider any personal or sensitive information you decide to register.
What information we make public
Your company’s registered office address and single alternative inspection location (SAIL)
Your registered office address is the company’s official address. It must be an ‘appropriate’ address in the same country your company is registered in.
Your company can also choose to use another address to hold some of its records for inspection at a different location. This is called a single alternative inspection location (SAIL).
If you do not want your home address to be publicly available, you should choose a different address as your company’s registered office or SAIL.
Company directors
If you’re a director of a registered company, some of your details will be made public. This includes your:
- name
- nationality
- occupation
- month and year of your date of birth
A director must provide 2 addresses:
- a service address
- their usual residential address
A service address is a correspondence address for the public register, that you can use to receive communications about the company. This can be the same as the registered office address of the company, or it can be somewhere different.
The usual residential address is the director’s home address. You must tell Companies House your home address, but this will not be available on the public register for everyone to see. Your home address is kept on a private register.
We’ll only provide information about your home address to credit reference agencies and specified public authorities, such as the police. In some cases, you may be able to restrict the disclosure of your home address to credit reference agencies.
If you do not want your home address to be publicly available, you should choose a different address as your service address or company’s registered office.
Date of birth
You must give your full date of birth when you’re appointed as a director. This is kept on a private register and is not available to the public.
For directors appointed after 10 October 2015, only the month and year from the date of birth will be publicly available.
We only share your full date of birth if we’re required to by law, for example to credit reference agencies or the police.
If you choose to keep your company’s ‘register of directors’ at Companies House, the full date of birth will be available to the public.
Company secretaries
You do not have to give your home address or date of birth when you’re appointed as a company secretary.
You must give a service address for correspondence, which is available to the public. This can be the same as the registered office address of the company, or it can be somewhere different.
If you do not want your home address to be publicly available, you should choose a different address as your secretary’s service address.
People with significant control (PSCs)
PSCs need to give the same personal information as directors, plus details of how they control the company. Most PSC information is available to the public, apart from their home address and full date of birth.
If you do not want your home address to be publicly available, you should choose a different address as your PSC’s service address.
See guidance about people with significant control of a company.
How the public can access information
There are different ways to search the Companies House register.
You can:
- search our free Find and update company information service
- use our data products
- use our application program interface (API) search service
- call our contact centre
More information about our services.
Find and update company information makes all of our company data available to the public for free. Information also appears through search engines such as Google.
As the public register is open and available to anyone, we cannot stop third-parties from finding and using this information.
We do not actively ‘index’ information from our search services. We do not have any features that make it easier for search engines to collect this information.
How other organisations can access information
Companies House is exempt from certain data protection requirements because we’re required by law to make information available to the public.
Other organisations have the right to make copies of any information available on the public register. Once they hold your information, third-parties are responsible for making sure they comply with data protection law. We have no control over the information held by third parties.
If you have any concerns about your company data on third party products and websites, you must contact the organisation directly.
Some predetermined organisations like credit reference agencies and specified public authorities such as the police, can request access to private information. This includes the home address and full date of birth of directors and PSCs.
We only share this information under strict circumstances or if we’re required to by law.
How long your information remains available
Information about the officers of a company remains on the public register for the lifetime of the company. This information will be available to the public as long as the company is active. This includes details of all resigned officers and also applies to dormant companies.
When a company is dissolved, this information remains on the public register for 20 years. After 20 years, we have an agreement to transfer a selection of dissolved company records to The National Archives (TNA).
TNA will direct us to destroy any records that are not transferred. Any records transferred to TNA can be requested by the public.
Following the government’s response to the Corporate Transparency and Register Reform consultation, we’ve:
- stopped removing dissolved records from our Find and update company information service
- added the records of all companies dissolved since January 2010 to Find and update company information
Previously, records of dissolved companies were removed from this service after 6 years (from the date of dissolution). These dissolved records are currently available for 20 years on other Companies House products for a fee.
More information about searching the Companies House register.
How to keep your home address private
You do not have to use a sensitive address (such as your home address) for your:
- correspondence address
- company’s registered office
- company’s SAIL
We have a statutory duty to make this information available to the public. We cannot protect your address even if it’s sensitive.
You cannot remove a SAIL address from a company’s record after incorporation.
Using a service provider
If you run your company from home, you should choose a different registered office address if you do not want your home address to be publicly available.
There’s a list of service providers and agents who can provide registered office services.
A quick online search will show other providers who offer similar services. All providers of registered office services will charge a fee for their services.
If you decide to use a registered office service, it’s important to have this in place before you incorporate your company. You must have permission to use the address, and it must be an ‘appropriate’ address.
Any third parties that hold your information are responsible for making sure they comply with data protection law. If you have any concerns about your company data on third party products and websites, you must contact the organisation directly.
Removing your home address
You can apply to remove your home address from the Companies House register.
You can also apply to protect a sensitive address like your home address, if you’ve used it on public documents such as an appointment form. If you’re at risk of violence or intimidation because of your company’s work, you may be able to restrict the disclosure of your home address to credit reference agencies.
Search the Companies House register to find out which documents contain your address.
Addresses we cannot remove
We do not have the legal power to remove an address that’s been used as a:
- company’s SAIL address
- place of business for an overseas company
You can change the address, but any previous addresses you’ve used will remain on the public register for the lifetime of the company and 20 years after the company is dissolved.
Why we cannot remove your data under The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
Companies House does not have to comply with requests under the UK GDPR to exercise the right to erasure or rectification. This is because Companies House relies on an exemption under schedule 2, part 1 (5) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
This exemption applies to Companies House because we must make information about registered companies available to the public under the Companies Act 2006.
Read the Companies House personal information charter for guidance on how we handle your personal data.
Protection for people with significant control (PSCs)
Some companies will have PSCs whose information is protected.
This could mean their residential address is not disclosed to credit reference agencies. It could also mean that none of their PSC information will appear on the public register.
See protecting your details on the Companies House register.
Other ways to protect your personal information
Keep your authentication code safe.
The authentication code is a 6 digit code of letters and numbers that we issue to each company. The code is used to authorise information filed online. It is the equivalent of a company officer’s signature.
You should treat your company’s authentication code with the same care you would your bank card PIN. Anyone who knows your code can change your company’s details online.
This free service lets you protect your company from unauthorised changes to your records by preventing the filing of certain paper forms.
Report scams to Companies House immediately.
Forward any suspicious emails to phishing@companieshouse.gov.uk. Do not open any attachments or share personal information. We’ll never ask for your authentication code.
Updates to this page
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You can now apply to suppress a home address where it has been used as a former registered office address.
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Fees updated.
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Companies House WebCheck service is no longer available.
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Welsh translation updated.
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Added more guidance about how to protect your address.
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Video added: what happens to your details.
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Welsh version added
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First published.