UK Companies House Scraper

Scrape company data from the UK Companies House register — details, officers, filing history.

Data Source

• URL: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/
• API docs: https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/api/docs/
• Rate limits: 600 requests / 5 minutes
• Auth required: Yes — free API key from https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/

Output Schema

Field	Type	Description
company_number	string	Unique company identifier (e.g. "00445790")
company_name	string	Registered company name
company_status	string	Active, dissolved, liquidation, etc.
type	string	ltd, plc, llp, etc.
date_of_creation	string	ISO date of incorporation
date_of_cessation	string	ISO date of dissolution (if applicable)
registered_office_address	string	Full registered address
sic_codes	array	Standard Industrial Classification codes
officers	array	List of officers (if include_officers=true)
filing_history	array	Filing history entries (if include_filing_history=true)

Example Output

{
  "company_number": "00445790",
  "company_name": "TESCO PLC",
  "company_status": "active",
  "type": "plc",
  "date_of_creation": "1947-11-27",
  "registered_office_address": "Tesco House, Shire Park, Kestrel Way, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1GA, United Kingdom",
  "sic_codes": ["47110"],
  "officers": [
    {
      "name": "MURPHY, Ken",
      "officer_role": "director",
      "appointed_on": "2020-10-01",
      "nationality": "Irish"
    }
  ]
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
api_key	string	Yes	Companies House API key (Basic Auth)
search_query	string	No	Company name or number to search
company_numbers	array	No	Specific company numbers to fetch
include_officers	boolean	No	Fetch officers (default: true)
include_filing_history	boolean	No	Fetch filings (default: false)
max_results	integer	No	Max results (default: 100, max: 10000)
database_url	string	No	PostgreSQL URL for persistence
proxy_configuration	object	No	Apify proxy config

Database

• Database name: datamon_uk_companies
• Tables: companies, officers, filings
• Upsert key: company_number (companies), replace strategy (officers/filings)

Pricing (Apify Store)

• Model: Pay-per-event (PPE)
• Price: $3 / 1,000 results

Development

# Local runner (no Apify dependency)
cd actors/uk-companies-house
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Test without DB
COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY="your_key" python runner.py --search-query "tesco" --max-results 5 --no-db

# Test with DB persistence
DATABASE_URL="postgresql+asyncpg://user:pass@host:5432/datamon_uk_companies" \
COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY="your_key" \
    python runner.py --search-query "tesco" --max-results 10

# Fetch specific companies
COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY="your_key" \
    python runner.py --company-numbers 00000006,00445790 --no-db

# Apify run
apify run --purge

Status

• Scraper implementation
• Database models + migrations
• Input/output schemas
• Local runner (runner.py)
• DB persistence (persist.py)
• Apify Store listing