# UK Companies House Lookup — Company, Officers & PSCs (`promptandproof/uk-companies-house-lookup`) Actor

Real, live UK Companies House data: company profile, directors/officers, and persons with significant control (PSCs), by company number or free-text company-name search.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/promptandproof/uk-companies-house-lookup.md
- **Developed by:** [dan boulton](https://apify.com/promptandproof) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 50.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $30.00 / 1,000 company profile returneds

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## UK Companies House Lookup — Company, Officers & PSCs

Real, live UK Companies House data for a given company number or a
free-text company-name search: company profile (status, incorporation
date, SIC codes, registered office), officers/directors, and persons with
significant control (PSCs). Every field is copied straight from
Companies House's own free, public API — nothing invented, nothing
scraped from a screen.

### Input

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `companyNumbers` | array of strings | Exact company numbers, e.g. `"05180877"`. |
| `searchTerm` | string | Free-text company-name search — every match (up to `maxSearchResults`) is looked up the same way. |
| `maxSearchResults` | integer | Caps how many companies a `searchTerm` can pull in (default 20). |
| `includeOfficers` | boolean | Default true. |
| `includePscs` | boolean | Default true. |
| `activeOnly` | boolean | Skip (and don't charge for) a company that isn't currently `active`. |

At least one of `companyNumbers` or `searchTerm` is required.

### Output (one dataset item per company)

```json
{
  "company_number": "05180877",
  "company_name": "GARY THE DENT MAN LIMITED",
  "company_status": "active",
  "company_type": "ltd",
  "incorporated_on": "2004-07-15",
  "sic_codes": ["45200"],
  "registered_office_address": {"address_line_1": "...", "postal_code": "..."},
  "jurisdiction": "england-wales",
  "officers": [{"name": "...", "role": "director", "appointed_on": "...", "resigned_on": null}],
  "persons_with_significant_control": [{"name": "...", "kind": "...", "notified_on": "...", "nature_of_control": ["..."]}]
}
```

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: a charge fires per real API response actually returned —
one company profile, one officer list, one PSC list — never per input row
attempted. See `.actor/pay_per_event_schema.json` for the proposed event
names/prices; **verify and finalise the real prices in the Apify Console's
own Monetization tab before publishing** — Apify's pay-per-event schema
format is configured there, and this checked-in file is a best-effort
starting point, not a guaranteed-correct final artifact (disclosed
honestly: I could not find an authoritative, literal example of this
file's exact schema during a live web search while building this).

### Source

Companies House's own REST API, `https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk`.
No scraping. A real UK Companies House API key is required
(`COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY`) — free to obtain from
<https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/>.

# Actor input Schema

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

Exact UK Companies House company numbers to look up. Prefilled with a real, active company (05180877, GARY THE DENT MAN LIMITED) so a first run works as-is. At least one of companyNumbers or searchTerm is required.

## `searchTerm` (type: `string`):

Free-text company name search (Companies House's own search-companies endpoint). Every matching company (up to maxSearchResults) is then looked up the same way as an explicit company number.

## `maxSearchResults` (type: `integer`):

Caps real API calls (and real charges) when searchTerm is used.

## `includeOfficers` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch the company's officers/directors (name, role, appointed date, resignation date if any) from Companies House. One extra real API call per company; charged as the officers-lookup event only when a list is actually returned.

## `includePscs` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch the company's persons with significant control (PSCs) from Companies House. One extra real API call per company; charged as the psc-lookup event only when a list is actually returned.

## `activeOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Skip (and don't charge for) a company whose Companies House status is not 'active'.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "companyNumbers": [
    "05180877"
  ],
  "maxSearchResults": 20,
  "includeOfficers": true,
  "includePscs": true,
  "activeOnly": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `companies` (type: `string`):

Every company record returned by this run, as JSON. Each item's fields are described by the dataset schema.

# 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": [
        "05180877"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("promptandproof/uk-companies-house-lookup").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": ["05180877"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("promptandproof/uk-companies-house-lookup").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": [
    "05180877"
  ]
}' |
apify call promptandproof/uk-companies-house-lookup --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/wceUe6wnDfxbxpbE3/builds/pc1Ylqzwlh77kAudl/openapi.json