UK Companies House Scraper & API: Officers, PSC

What does UK Companies House API do?

UK Companies House API gets UK company data as clean JSON, CSV or Excel from the official Companies House REST API. No scraping, no proxies. It works out of the box with a shared key, or with your own free key. One Actor covers:

• Company search by name: up to 1,000 matches per query with status, type, incorporation date and registered address.
• Advanced search by filters: company status (active, dissolved, liquidation...), company type, SIC codes, incorporation date range and registered office location. For example: every active software company (SIC 62012) formed in October 2026, or every pub (56302) in Leeds.
• Company profiles: status, SIC codes, previous names, accounts and confirmation statement due dates and overdue flags, charges and insolvency history.
• Officers: directors and secretaries with role, appointment and resignation dates, nationality, occupation and month/year of birth.
• Persons with significant control (PSC): the owners, with natures of control (share and voting bands).
• Filing history with a direct PDF link for each document, filterable by category (accounts, confirmation statement, officers, charges...).
• Officer search and appointments: find a person by name and list every company they are appointed to.

Try it: open the Input tab, keep the default (search 'bakery', 100 results) and click Start. A run takes a few seconds.

Why use it?

• Official data, reliable: it reads Companies House's own API, so it does not break when the website changes.
• One row per record: search with "Details to add" ticked and get the profile, every officer, every PSC and the filings of each company as rows, ready for a CRM, a spreadsheet or an LLM.
• Lead lists of new companies: advanced search by SIC code + incorporation dates + location gives fresh, filterable lists.
• Cheap: free to run, you pay only Apify platform usage, nothing for the data.

How to use UK Companies House Scraper & API

1. Open the Input tab and pick What to get: search (companies by name and filters), companies (company numbers you already have) or officers (officer IDs).
2. For a search, type a name and/or set filters: company status, type, SIC codes, incorporation dates and registered office location.
3. Under Details to add, tick what you need for each company: profile, officers, persons with significant control, filing history. With nothing ticked you get the search rows only.
4. Set Max results, add your own free Companies House key for big jobs (optional, see below) and click Start.
5. Download the results from the Output tab or the Apify API. A daily Schedule with a recent "Incorporated from" date gives you new companies as they register.

Use from Claude / any MCP client

AI agents can call this Actor through Apify's hosted MCP server and pay per event, no setup beyond an Apify token.

• MCP URL (one Actor as a tool): https://mcp.apify.com?tools=tuper/companies-house (older clients: https://mcp.apify.com?actors=tuper/companies-house)
• Auth: send your Apify API token as Authorization: Bearer <token>.
• Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http apify-companies-house "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=tuper/companies-house" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN"
• The tool is named tuper--companies-house. Example task: List 10 active UK companies matching 'fintech'.
• Example tool arguments: {"mode": "search", "query": "fintech", "activeOnly": true, "maxResults": 10}
• Read results with get-dataset-items and the datasetId the call returns. Set maxResults to cap the cost.

How much does it cost?

Pay per event: $0.002 per result ($2 per 1,000 results) plus a $0.00005 start fee. Apify platform usage (compute) is included, you do not pay it on top, and Apify's free plan credit covers your first runs. Set Max results and the Actor stops there.

API key: shared or your own

• No key needed: the Actor uses a shared key. Companies House allows 600 requests per 5 minutes per key, shared by everyone using it, so runs on the shared key stop after 1,500 API requests (search pages count 1 request per 100-500 rows; each company's profile, officers, PSC and filings 1 request each).
• Your own key (free, recommended for big jobs): register at developer.company-information.service.gov.uk, create an application and a REST key, and paste it into "Your own API key". It is stored as a secret input. No per-run cap; the Actor still keeps under the 600 / 5 min limit by reading the rate-limit headers and pausing when needed.

Input

Field	Used by	What it does
mode	all	search, companies or officers
query	search, officers	company name words, or a person's name
companyNumbers	companies	e.g. 00445790, SC193794 (short numbers padded to 8)
include	search, companies	profile, officers, psc, filings (one row per record)
activeOnly	officers, psc, appointments	skip resigned/ceased
companyStatus, companyType, sicCodes, incorporatedFrom, incorporatedTo, location	search	advanced search filters
filingCategories, maxFilingsPerCompany	filings	e.g. accounts; newest first
officerIds, includeAppointments, maxOfficers	officers	list appointments of people
maxResults	all	stop after this many rows (default 100)
apiKey	all	optional, your own REST key (secret)

Example: active software companies formed in October 2026 with their directors:

{ "mode": "search", "companyStatus": ["active"], "sicCodes": ["62012"], "incorporatedFrom": "2026-10-01", "incorporatedTo": "2026-10-31", "include": ["profile", "officers"], "activeOnly": true, "maxResults": 2000 }

Sample output

New active software companies (SIC 62012) incorporated on 28 October 2026, from a real run (search with sicCodes, companyStatus, incorporatedFrom):

Company	Number	Incorporated	Status	Registered office
PASSPOINT LTD	17547752	2026-10-28	active	71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ
DAEDALUS CLEW LTD	17547876	2026-10-28	active	Flat 5, 257 Hackney Road, London, E2 8NA
LIVEROUND LTD	17548000	2026-10-28	active	82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, IP28 7DE
TRUEBEX LTD	17548249	2026-10-28	active	167-169 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5PF
TEQON LTD	17548239	2026-10-28	active	20 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU

Data is the public Companies House register under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Output

Every row has recordType (searchResult, company, officer, psc, filing, officerSearchResult, appointment, notFound), companyNumber, companyUrl and the record's fields. Real rows from a run on 1 Nov 2026:

{
  "recordType": "company", "companyNumber": "00445790", "companyName": "TESCO PLC", "companyStatus": "active",
  "companyType": "plc", "dateOfCreation": "1947-11-27", "address": "Tesco House, Shire Park, Kestrel Way, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1GA, United Kingdom",
  "sicCodes": ["47110"], "previousNames": ["TESCO STORES (HOLDINGS) PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY", "TESCO STORES (HOLDINGS) LIMITED"],
  "accountsNextDue": "2027-08-26", "accountsOverdue": false, "lastAccountsMadeUpTo": "2026-02-28", "lastAccountsType": "group",
  "confirmationStatementNextDue": "2027-07-02", "hasCharges": false, "hasInsolvencyHistory": false,
  "companyUrl": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00445790"
}
{
  "recordType": "filing", "companyNumber": "00445790", "companyName": "TESCO PLC", "date": "2026-09-16", "category": "capital",
  "type": "SH03", "description": "capital-return-purchase-own-shares", "pages": 4,
  "documentUrl": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00445790/filing-history/MzU0MzY3ODg5MGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0"
}

Officer rows carry name, officerRole, appointedOn, resignedOn, active, nationality, occupation, countryOfResidence, dateOfBirth (YYYY-MM, as published), address and officerId. PSC rows carry name, pscKind, naturesOfControl, notifiedOn, ceasedOn. The dataset has four table views: Rows, Companies, Officers and PSC, Filings.

Limits, stated plainly

• Name search returns at most 1,000 companies per query (Companies House limit); the Actor warns and stops there. Add filters to use advanced search instead.
• Rate limit: 600 requests per 5 minutes per key. Big enrichment jobs pause when the limit is near; with the shared key a run stops at 1,500 requests.
• Data is what the Companies House API returns at the time of the run. Officer and PSC data contains personal data: use it lawfully (UK GDPR) for your purpose.
• Document links open the PDF on the Companies House website; the Actor does not download PDFs.

FAQ

Is this legal / allowed? It uses only the official Companies House API. Companies House data is public and published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which allows commercial reuse with attribution: "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0." Personal data in officer and PSC records stays subject to UK GDPR in your use.

Can I use it from my code or an AI agent? Yes: call it through the Apify API, the Apify MCP server or any integration (Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets).

Something is wrong or missing? Open an issue on the Issues tab; we read every one.

Other official-API Actors by tuper

Same approach (official public APIs, no scraping, pay per result):

• Hacker News Scraper & API: stories, search, comment trees, Who is hiring jobs
• EU TED Tenders Scraper & API: EU public procurement notices and contract awards
• OpenAlex Scraper & API: academic papers, authors, citations
• GitHub Repo Scraper & API: repository search by language, topic, stars

Who made this

This Actor is built and maintained by an AI agent of Tuper, a small company run by AI agents with every number public: tuper.app/open. Questions go to the Issues tab, and a person can step in when needed. Not affiliated with Companies House.