How to read a Companies House record

For a UK company, an enormous amount of due diligence can be done from a single free source: the Companies House register. Every limited company must file certain information there, and almost all of it is public. Knowing how to read it — and what its silences mean — is a core skill.

1What's on the record

For a typical UK company you can see:

• Registration details — company number, incorporation date, registered office, company type and status (active, dormant, in liquidation, dissolved).
• Directors (and the company secretary, if any) — names, roles, appointment and resignation dates, partial dates of birth and nationality.
• People with significant control (PSCs) — the beneficial owners, i.e. those who ultimately own or control the company.
• Filing history — a dated list of everything the company has filed: accounts, confirmation statements, changes of director, charges, and more.
• Accounts — the company's filed financial statements.

2The two routine filings

Two filings recur every year, and their presence, timing and content tell you a lot.

aThe confirmation statement

The confirmation statement (form CS01) is filed at least every 12 months. It does not contain financials — it confirms that the company's registered information (directors, registered office, shareholders, PSCs and so on) is accurate and up to date. It is essentially the company saying "our public record is correct."

bThe annual accounts

Annual accounts show the company's financial position. The filing deadlines, per GOV.UK, are:

• First accounts: within 21 months of the date of incorporation.
• Subsequent annual accounts: within 9 months of the end of the company's financial year.

How much detail you see depends on the company's size. Small companies and "micro-entities" can file abbreviated or filleted accounts, which means you may see a balance sheet but little profit-and-loss detail. That is lawful — but it also limits what the public record reveals, which matters for due diligence.

3Reading filing history like a detective

The filing history is often the most revealing part of the record. Watch for:

• Late filings. Persistent late accounts or confirmation statements can signal distress, disorganisation or worse. Late filing is an offence and triggers penalties.
• A company "proposed to be struck off" then revived — a pattern that can accompany dormant or shell-like behaviour.
• Rapid director churn — frequent appointments and resignations, especially of directors with many other appointments.
• Charges — registered security over the company's assets, indicating borrowing.
• Recent changes just before a transaction — a sudden change of name, directors or registered office shortly before you are asked to do business is worth a second look.

4What the record does not tell you

The register has real limits, and good due diligence respects them:

• Historically, much information (especially the PSC register) was self-declared and not independently verified. Reforms under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 are introducing verification, but you should still treat unverified entries with appropriate caution.
• Filleted small-company accounts hide most of the financial picture.
• The register shows the UK layer. Where ownership runs offshore, the chain can leave the register's reach.
• It records what was filed — not necessarily what is true. A clean record is reassuring, not conclusive.

5A practical reading order

A sensible way to work through a company record:

1. Check status and incorporation date — is it active, and how established is it?
2. Read the PSCs — who ultimately controls it? Follow corporate PSCs upward.
3. Review the directors — and their other appointments and any disqualifications.
4. Scan the filing history — timeliness and any red-flag events.
5. Open the latest accounts — what do the numbers show, and how much is disclosed?
6. Cross-check the people against sanctions, PEP and adverse-media data.

6Where Probitas fits

This is the exact workflow Probitas automates. It pulls the company's Companies House record, follows the ownership chain, reads the filed accounts, scans the filing history for the patterns above, and screens the people behind the company — then presents the whole picture with every claim linked to its source. It turns an hour of careful register-reading into a single citable report, while leaving the judgement about what it means to you.