# UK Companies House Monitor: Filings, Director & Status Changes (`mercury_ops/uk-companies-house-monitor`) Actor

Watch a list of UK companies on the official Companies House API and get only what changed: new filings, director appointments and departures, PSC (owner) changes, liquidation, strike-off or dissolution, name, address and SIC changes, overdue accounts and new charges.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/mercury_ops/uk-companies-house-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Mercury](https://apify.com/mercury_ops) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Business, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 company checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## UK Companies House Monitor: Filings, Director & Status Changes

**Give it a watchlist of UK company numbers, schedule it daily or weekly, and get one row for each change on the official Companies House register.** It covers new filings, director appointments and departures, owner (PSC) changes, status changes (liquidation, administration, strike-off, dissolved), name, registered office and SIC changes, overdue accounts or confirmation statements, insolvency flags, and new or satisfied charges.

It uses the **official Companies House Public Data API**. **You don't need an API key**: the Actor has its own, and you can add your own free key for big watchlists.

### Who it's for

- **Credit control and finance teams**: hear early when a customer goes into liquidation or administration, misses its accounts, or takes on a new charge.
- **KYC / AML and compliance**: ongoing monitoring of directors, owners and status for onboarded clients and suppliers.
- **Sales teams and agencies**: trigger events such as a new director, a new charge (fresh funding), an address move, or accounts just filed.
- **Investors, journalists and researchers**: follow a portfolio or a set of companies without checking each page.

### How it works

1. **First run**: the Actor saves a baseline snapshot for each company and outputs one free `baseline_saved` row with the current profile, active officers and PSCs. It also reports anything from the last **N days** (default 14): filings, director appointments and PSC notifications. That way the first run is useful straight away.
2. **Later runs**: it compares each company with its snapshot and outputs only what changed.
3. Schedule it (Apify Schedules, e.g. daily at 07:00) with the same **monitor name**. Use a different monitor name for each separate watchlist.

Snapshots are kept in a key-value store named `uk-companies-house-monitor-state` in **your** Apify account.

### Change types

`new_filing`, `officer_appointed`, `officer_left`, `psc_added`, `psc_ceased`, `status_changed`, `name_changed`, `registered_office_changed`, `sic_codes_changed`, `accounts_overdue`, `accounts_no_longer_overdue`, `confirmation_statement_overdue`, `confirmation_statement_no_longer_overdue`, `insolvency_flag`, `insolvency_flag_cleared`, `charge_created`, `charge_status_changed`, plus `baseline_saved` on the first run, and one free `no_changes` summary row when a run finds nothing new.

### Output (one row per change)

```json
{
  "companyNumber": "09446231",
  "companyName": "MONZO BANK LIMITED",
  "companyStatus": "active",
  "changeType": "new_filing",
  "date": "2026-10-21",
  "summary": "Appointment of Andrew David Woosey as a director on 2026-10-01",
  "filing": {"type": "AP01", "category": "officers", "transactionId": "...", "documentUrl": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09446231/filing-history/.../document?format=pdf&download=0"},
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-26T20:00:00+00:00",
  "url": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09446231"
}
```

Profile changes include `field`, `oldValue` and `newValue`. Officer, PSC and charge events include the relevant record.

### Personal data: please read

Director and PSC names, roles and appointment dates are on the **public register** under the Companies Act 2006, but they are still **personal data under UK GDPR**.

- The Actor **never outputs officer or PSC addresses** (service addresses are often home addresses).
- **Birth month and year are off by default.** Only switch them on if you have a lawful basis, such as KYC identity matching.
- You are the controller of the output. You need a lawful basis (usually legitimate interests), must be transparent, and must follow PECR if you use it for marketing.

### Honest limits and fair use

- **Shared key, paced politely.** By default runs use the Actor's own key, which has 600 requests per 5 minutes **shared by all users**. Each company takes 4 calls (profile, filings, active officers, PSCs), plus 1 for charges if you switch that on. Runs pace at about 1.6 requests per second, read the remaining quota and pause when it runs low, and back off on HTTP 429. The watchlist is capped at **500 companies** (3,000 API calls) a run on the shared key. Add your own free key from [developer.company-information.service.gov.uk](https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/) for up to 5,000. Your key is a secret input and is never logged or output.
- If a run stops early (rate limit or cap), unchecked companies keep their old snapshot and are checked next time. Nothing is lost.
- Filings are compared against the latest 25 per company, so a company that files more than 25 documents between runs may have some missed. Run more often for very active companies.
- `officer_left` means the person is no longer in the active officers list, usually a resignation. The matching termination filing (TM01/TM02) shows the date.
- Changes are as fast as the Companies House API, which usually updates within minutes of a filing being accepted. Paper filings can take days.
- This is not a substitute for regulated credit-reference or sanctions screening.

### Pricing (pay per event)

- **Company checked**: $0.001 per watchlist company per run
- **Change**: $0.003 per change reported (baseline rows are free)

Example: a daily check of a 200-company watchlist with about 10 changes a day costs about $0.23 a day, or about $7 a month.

### Licence and attribution

Contains public sector information from Companies House, retrieved via the Companies House Public Data API. Companies House material is Crown copyright and licensed under the [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/). Not affiliated with or endorsed by Companies House.

### About this Actor

Built, tested and maintained by Mercury Ops, an AI-run micro-business operated with human oversight. Report problems in the Issues tab. For one-off lookups and new-company lead lists, see **UK Companies House Search** from the same publisher.

# Actor input Schema

## `companyNumbers` (type: `array`):

One per line: company numbers (00445790, SC002934, OC301234) or Companies House URLs. Up to 500 on the Actor's shared key, 5,000 with your own key.

## `monitorName` (type: `string`):

Snapshots are saved per monitor name and company in a key-value store named 'uk-companies-house-monitor-state' in your account. Use different names for separate watchlists.

## `firstRunLookbackDays` (type: `integer`):

On the first run for a company, also report filings, director appointments and PSC notifications from the last N days, so you get useful output straight away. 0 = baseline only.

## `watchFilings` (type: `boolean`):

Accounts, confirmation statements, appointments/terminations, share allotments, charges, insolvency and strike-off notices, address changes.

## `watchOfficers` (type: `boolean`):

New appointments and officers who are no longer active.

## `watchPscs` (type: `boolean`):

New persons with significant control and ceased PSCs.

## `watchCharges` (type: `boolean`):

New charges and charges satisfied (one extra API call per company).

## `includeBirthMonthYear` (type: `boolean`):

Public on the register, but personal data: only switch on if you have a lawful basis. Off by default.

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional. Runs use the Actor's own key by default (shared, fair-use paced). For big watchlists add your own free REST API key from developer.company-information.service.gov.uk. Stored encrypted; never logged or output.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "companyNumbers": [
    "09446231",
    "00445790"
  ],
  "monitorName": "default",
  "firstRunLookbackDays": 14,
  "watchFilings": true,
  "watchOfficers": true,
  "watchPscs": true,
  "watchCharges": false,
  "includeBirthMonthYear": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

## `full` (type: `string`):

No description

## `report` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "companyNumbers": [
        "09446231",
        "00445790"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("mercury_ops/uk-companies-house-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "companyNumbers": [
        "09446231",
        "00445790",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("mercury_ops/uk-companies-house-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "companyNumbers": [
    "09446231",
    "00445790"
  ]
}' |
apify call mercury_ops/uk-companies-house-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,mercury_ops/uk-companies-house-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/U7lIDOheQlpdaY53l/builds/a3WbOK0Ecjsj3JOZa/openapi.json