UK Company Check — Companies House + HMRC VAT + UK Sanctions

UK Company Check runs a one-shot UK KYB (know your business) check: Companies House profile, active officers and PSCs, optional HMRC VAT validation and UK Sanctions List screening, in one result per company.

Best for: Merchant onboarding and KYB teams, B2B credit checks, supplier due diligence and fintech compliance operations.

What does UK Company Check do?

One-shot UK KYB check per company:

1. Companies House profile: status, type, incorporation date, SIC, registered office, overdue accounts/confirmation, insolvency history, charges
2. Active officers and persons with significant control (PSCs)
3. HMRC VAT number validation (name/address on VAT record) — optional
4. Company name, officers and PSCs screened against the UK Sanctions List (FCDO)
5. flags[]: not-found, status-dissolved, accounts-overdue, insolvency-history, vat-invalid, sanctions-potential-match

How to run a UK company (KYB) check

1. Add companies (company number, optionally a VAT number) to Companies.
2. Paste your free Companies House API key (and optionally an HMRC token).
3. Click Start and review the flags for each company.

Keys (bring your own)

• companiesHouseApiKey — free from https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk (rate limit 600 req / 5 min).
• hmrcAccessToken — optional; HMRC "Check a UK VAT number" API v2 requires an OAuth app-restricted token from https://developer.service.hmrc.gov.uk. Without it, VAT is reported as checked:false.
• No key? The Actor runs in demo mode on bundled sample data (Tesco PLC + a fictitious test company) so you can preview the output; demo results are free (not charged). mockMode: true forces demo mode.

Data: Companies House & UK Sanctions List under Open Government Licence v3.0. Not legal advice; potential matches need human review. (FCA Register data is deliberately not included — its terms prohibit bulk resale.)

Pricing (pay-per-event)

• company-checked: $0.02 per company ($20 / 1,000).
• Example: 10,000 companies cost $200.00.

Example input

{
  "companies": [
    {
      "companyNumber": "00445790",
      "vatNumber": "GB220430231"
    }
  ],
  "companiesHouseApiKey": "YOUR_KEY",
  "screenSanctions": true
}

Example output

Values below are illustrative.

{
  "companyNumber": "00445790",
  "name": "TESCO PLC",
  "status": "active",
  "incorporated": "1947-11-27",
  "activeOfficers": [
    {
      "name": "...",
      "role": "director"
    }
  ],
  "pscs": [],
  "vat": {
    "checked": false,
    "reason": "no HMRC token supplied"
  },
  "sanctions": {
    "listReportDate": "08-Oct-2026",
    "hits": []
  },
  "flags": []
}

Use it via API, schedules and integrations

Run it in Apify Console, or call it from your own code with the Apify API or the Python and JavaScript clients. Save an input as a task and add a schedule to run it regularly, and send results to Slack, email, webhooks, Zapier, Make or n8n with Apify integrations. AI agents can find and run it through the Apify MCP server.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("sterlingverify/uk-company-check").call(run_input={"companies": [{"companyNumber": "00445790"}], "companiesHouseApiKey": "YOUR_COMPANIES_HOUSE_KEY"})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

FAQ

Do I need an API key?

Yes, a free Companies House API key. Without one the Actor runs in demo mode on bundled sample data, and demo results are not charged.

Does it include FCA Register data?

No. FCA Register data is deliberately not included because its terms prohibit bulk resale.

Disclaimer

You must bring your own free Companies House API key (and optionally an HMRC token); keys are passed as secret input and never stored. Sanctions results are a screening aid only, not legal advice; potential matches need human review. No FCA Register data is included (FCA terms prohibit bulk resale). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Platform usage is included in the per-event price; you pay only for results.

Related sterlingVerify tools

Part of the sterlingVerify UK payments, KYB and data toolkit on Apify Store:

• UK Director Search: every Companies House appointment for a director
• UK Sanctions Screener: fuzzy screening against the UK Sanctions List (FCDO)
• EU VAT Number Validator (VIES): bulk EU VAT number checks against VIES
• Merchant Website Compliance Checker for Onboarding: onboarding review of a merchant's website
• UK Bank Account Validator: UK sort code and account number modulus check