# Companies House API: UK Company Check (Insolvency, LEI, VAT) (`tudorlane/uk-company-check`) Actor

One-call UK company due-diligence for AI agents: Companies House profile, officers, PSC, insolvency and overdue flags, Gazette insolvency notices, GLEIF LEI, HMRC VAT, FCA. Official sources only.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/tudorlane/uk-company-check.md
- **Developed by:** [Tudor Lane](https://apify.com/tudorlane) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$20.00 / 1,000 company checks

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

## Companies House API: UK Company Check (Insolvency, LEI, VAT)

**What it does:** UK company due-diligence snapshot in one call: Companies House profile, directors, owners (PSC), insolvency, overdue filings, Gazette notices, LEI, VAT and FCA.

**Who it's for:** KYB/onboarding, supplier vetting, credit-risk and compliance agents, CRMs and accounting automations.

**Price:** Pay per event: **$0.02 per company checked**. Companies that return no data are not charged. You only pay Apify for what you run; there is no monthly fee for this Actor.

One call = a UK company due-diligence snapshot from **official sources only**:

- **Companies House**: profile, status, officers, people with significant control (PSC), insolvency cases, recent filings, overdue accounts/confirmation statement flags.
- **The Gazette**: corporate insolvency notices (winding-up, liquidation, administration).
- **GLEIF**: Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).
- **HMRC**: UK VAT number check (optional).
- **FCA register** and **Charity Commission** (optional).

Output includes `summary.red_flags`, `summary.risk` (high / low / incomplete) and the licence of every source.

Input: `{"company_number": "00445790", "company_name": "TESCO PLC", "vat_number": "GB220430231"}` or a batch in `companies` (max 50).

Pricing: one `company-check` event per company that returns data.

Data: Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. GLEIF data CC0.

### Use cases for AI agents

KYB / know-your-business, supplier and customer due diligence, credit-risk pre-checks, director and beneficial owner (PSC) lookup, insolvency and liquidation screening, LEI lookup, UK VAT number validation. Works through the Apify MCP server.

### Quick example

**Input**

```json
{
 "company_number": "00445790",
 "company_name": "TESCO PLC",
 "include_fca": true,
 "include_charity": false
}
```

**Output** (one dataset item, shortened)

```json
{
 "query": {
  "company_number": "00445790",
  "company_name": "TESCO PLC",
  "vat_number": null
 },
 "companies_house": {
  "status": "ok",
  "company_number": "00445790",
  "company_name": "TESCO PLC",
  "type": "plc",
  "date_of_creation": "1947-11-27",
  "date_of_cessation": null,
  "sic_codes": [
   "47110"
  ],
  "registered_office_address": {
   "address_line_1": "Tesco House, Shire Park",
   "address_line_2": "Kestrel Way",
   "country": "United Kingdom",
   "locality": "Welwyn Garden City",
   "postal_code": "AL7 1GA"
  },
  "accounts_next_due": "2027-08-26",
  "flags": {
   "company_status": "active",
   "is_active": true,
   "has_insolvency_history": false,
   "has_charges": false,
   "accounts_overdue": false,
   "confirmation_statement_overdue": false,
   "registered_office_is_in_dispute": false,
   "undeliverable_registered_office_address": false
  },
  "url": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00445790",
  "officers": [
   {
    "name": "TAYLOR, Christopher Jon",
    "officer_role": "secretary",
    "appointed_on": "2025-04-14"
   },
   {
    "name": "BETHELL, Melissa",
    "officer_role": "director",
    "appointed_on": "2018-09-24",
    "nationality": "British"
   },
   "..."
  ],
  "active_officer_count": 11,
  "psc": []
 },
 "gazette": {
  "status": "ok",
  "insolvency_notice_count": 0,
  "notices": [],
  "note": "Matched on company name; check the company number in each notice."
 },
 "gleif": {
  "status": "ok",
  "records": [
   {
    "lei": "2138002P5RNKC5W2JZ46",
    "legal_name": "TESCO PLC",
    "jurisdiction": "GB",
    "entity_status": "ACTIVE",
    "registered_as": "00445790",
    "registration_status": "ISSUED",
    "next_renewal": "2027-01-10T00:00:00Z"
   }
  ]
 },
 "fca": {
  "status": "not_configured",
  "note": "FCA Register API needs a free key (FCA_API_EMAIL / FCA_API_KEY)."
 },
 "summary": {
  "red_flags": [],
  "risk": "low",
  "sources_checked": [
   "companies_house",
   "gazette",
   "..."
  ],
  "sources_not_configured": [
   "fca"
  ]
 },
 "licences": {
  "companies_house": "OGL v3 (Companies House)",
  "gazette": "OGL v3 (The Gazette)",
  "gleif": "CC0 (GLEIF)",
  "fca": "FCA Register API terms"
 },
 "checked_at": "2026-10-21T09:38:59+00:00"
}
```

### Use it from AI agents (MCP) and code

- **Apify MCP server:** add `https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=tudorlane/uk-company-check` to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT connectors, VS Code or any MCP client (sign in with Apify OAuth or an API token). The Actor appears as a tool the model can call.
- **REST (sync):** `POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/tudorlane~uk-company-check/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN` with the input JSON as the body; results come back in the response.
- **SDKs / no-code:** `apify-client` (Python/JS), LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, n8n, Make and Zapier integrations.

### FAQ

**Do I need a Companies House key?** No, a shared key is built in.

**Is this a credit score?** No. It surfaces official red flags (insolvency, overdue accounts, status) from public registers.

**Batch?** Up to 50 companies per run via `companies`.

**What if the source is down?** You get an `error` row and are not charged for it.

**Support?** Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab.

***

Keywords: Companies House API, UK company check, KYB API, director lookup, PSC beneficial owner, insolvency check, Gazette notices, LEI lookup, UK VAT check, MCP tool, Apify Actor, AI agent tool.

# Actor input Schema

## `company_number` (type: `string`):

Companies House number, e.g. 00445790 or SC123456.

## `company_name` (type: `string`):

Used for Gazette, LEI and FCA searches.

## `vat_number` (type: `string`):

Optional, e.g. GB220430231.

## `include_fca` (type: `boolean`):

Search the FCA Financial Services Register.

## `include_charity` (type: `boolean`):

Search the charity register.

## `companies` (type: `array`):

List of objects with the fields above; max 50. One charge per company.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "company_number": "00445790",
  "company_name": "TESCO PLC",
  "include_fca": true,
  "include_charity": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One item per company checked.

## `dataset` (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 = {
    "company_number": "00445790",
    "company_name": "TESCO PLC"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("tudorlane/uk-company-check").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 = {
    "company_number": "00445790",
    "company_name": "TESCO PLC",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("tudorlane/uk-company-check").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 '{
  "company_number": "00445790",
  "company_name": "TESCO PLC"
}' |
apify call tudorlane/uk-company-check --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,tudorlane/uk-company-check"
        }
    }
}
```

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/jYiwW1YJ87ondheUp/builds/ht2AxgliXWWazbKWn/openapi.json