UK Company KYB Check — Companies House Officers, PSC, Charges

Verify UK companies in bulk and get a decision, not just rows

UK Company KYB Check turns a list of UK company numbers or names into one scored KYB record per company, built only from the official Companies House Public Data API. Every record combines the profile, registered office, officers, persons with significant control (beneficial owners), charges, filing history and insolvency data, then adds risk flags and an explainable KYB score (0–100). Other listings return raw rows; this one returns the answer a compliance or onboarding team actually needs: is this company real, active, and who is behind it?

No browser, no stale cache: each run reads the live register. Run it from the Console, on a schedule, via the API, or as a tool from an AI agent.

Sample output

{
    "company_number": "00445790",
    "company_name": "TESCO PLC",
    "company_status": "active",
    "company_type": "plc",
    "date_of_creation": "1947-11-27",
    "sic_codes": ["47110"],
    "registered_office": { "address_line_1": "Tesco House", "locality": "Welwyn Garden City", "postal_code": "AL7 1GA", "country": "England" },
    "accounts": { "next_due": "2026-11-30", "overdue": false, "last_made_up_to": "2026-02-28", "last_type": "group" },
    "confirmation_statement": { "next_due": "2026-06-14", "overdue": false },
    "officers": { "active_count": 13, "resigned_count": 63, "items": [{ "name": "MURPHY, Kenneth", "role": "director", "appointed_on": "2020-10-01", "nationality": "Irish", "occupation": "Chief Executive" }] },
    "psc": { "count": 0, "has_statements": true, "statements": ["psc-exists-but-not-identified"], "items": [] },
    "charges": { "total_count": 4, "outstanding_count": 0, "satisfied_count": 4 },
    "insolvency": { "has_insolvency_history": false, "cases": [] },
    "risk_flags": ["psc_statement_only"],
    "kyb_score": 95,
    "source_urls": { "profile": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00445790" },
    "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (Companies House)."
}

Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read it through the API. Lookups that fail come back as items with status set to not_found, unresolved or error plus a plain-language error, and they are never charged.

How much does it cost to check a UK company?

Pay per event, no subscription:

Event	Price	When
company-check	$0.008 per company	One successfully processed company, all selected sections included
name-search	$0.002 per name	One company name resolved to a company number

That is $8 per 1,000 companies for a record that takes up to eight Companies House calls to assemble. Not-found companies, unresolved names and errors are free. Set a maximum total charge per run in the run options to cap spending; free-plan users can try it within their monthly credits.

How to use it

1. Open the Input tab and paste company numbers (one per line) or company names.
2. Pick the sections you need. Profile and registered office are always included.
3. Click Start. With no input the Actor checks two example companies so you can see the output shape immediately.
4. Read the Output tab, export the dataset, or schedule the run to re-check your list weekly and alert on new risk_flags.

Input

Field	Meaning
companyNumbers	Companies House numbers, e.g. 00445790 or SC123456; digit-only values are zero-padded. Up to 1,000 per run
companyNames	Names resolved through Companies House search; only matches above minMatchScore are used, the rest are reported as unresolved and not charged
minMatchScore	Similarity threshold 0–1 (default 0.8); legal-form suffixes such as LTD or PLC are ignored
sections	Any of officers, psc, charges, filingHistory, insolvency
maxItemsPerSection	Cap per list section (default 50, max 500)
includeResignedOfficers	Also return resigned officers with their resignation dates
maxUnresolved	Stop after this many free failures (default 50), which stops a stale list from burning through the request budget
apiKey	Your own free Companies House key. Optional up to 500 companies per run, required above that; gives the run a dedicated rate limit

{
    "companyNumbers": ["00445790", "00041424"],
    "companyNames": ["Ocado Group"],
    "sections": ["officers", "psc", "charges", "insolvency"]
}

Risk flags and the KYB score

The score starts at 100 and subtracts a fixed weight per flag, so every score can be explained to an auditor:

Flag	Weight	Flag	Weight
not_active	60	no_active_officers	20
insolvency_history	40	no_psc_declared	10
proposal_to_strike_off	30	recently_incorporated (< 6 months)	10
overdue_accounts	20	psc_statement_only	5
overdue_confirmation_statement	15	super_secure_psc	5
registered_office_in_dispute	20	outstanding_charges	5
undeliverable_registered_office	20	many_previous_names (≥ 3)	5
dormant_accounts	5	overseas_entity	0 (informational)

The score is a screening aid, not a credit rating or legal advice.

Data fields

Field	Description
company_status, company_status_detail	Register status (active, dissolved, liquidation, administration, …) and details such as active-proposal-to-strike-off
company_type, jurisdiction, sic_codes	Legal form, jurisdiction, SIC activity codes
registered_office, registered_office_is_in_dispute, undeliverable_registered_office_address	Address and Companies House address warnings
accounts, confirmation_statement	Next due dates, overdue flags, last made-up dates, last accounts type
previous_names	Former names with effective and ceased dates
officers	Active and resigned counts and officer records (role, dates, nationality, residence, occupation, month/year of birth, officer id)
psc	Persons with significant control: kind, natures of control, notification dates, corporate identification; PSC statements when no PSC is identified
charges	Total, outstanding and satisfied counts plus charge records
filing_history	Latest filings (date, category, type, description)
insolvency	Insolvency history flag and cases with dates and practitioner count
match	For name lookups: the query and the similarity score of the chosen match

The run summary in the key-value store record OUTPUT reports processed, charged, not found, unresolved and error counts, errors by category (rate limit, network, upstream shape, other) and the number of Companies House requests made.

Tips

• Prefer company numbers over names: exact, cheaper, and no search step.
• Above roughly 70 companies per 5 minutes, add your own Companies House API key to get a dedicated rate limit.
• Reduce sections when you only need the profile and PSC data; runs finish faster.
• AI agents: this Actor is available as a tool through the Apify MCP server. Ask: "Check UK company 00445790 with UK Company KYB Check and summarise the risk flags." The agent passes the input JSON above and receives the dataset items.

FAQ, limits and legal

• Where does the data come from? Exclusively from the Companies House Public Data API. The data is public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0; every item carries the attribution string.
• Is it real-time? Yes. Each run queries the live register; nothing is cached between runs.
• Rate limits? Companies House allows 600 requests per 5 minutes per key. A full check uses up to 8 requests per company. The Actor rate-limits itself, retries transparently, and stops with a clear message if a run would reach the per-run request budget.
• Personal data: officer and PSC records contain names and partial dates of birth as published by Companies House. Use them in line with UK GDPR and your lawful basis.
• Something wrong or missing? Open an issue in the Issues tab. Custom fields, monitoring workflows and other registries are available on request.