Sources & Methodology · ProbitasLast reviewed · 08 June 2026 · v3.5
The full ledger

38 authorities.
One report.

Every public register, sanctions list, regulator and court record we read, what each one is, and who publishes it, read fresh at the moment your report is written.

38
authoritative sources read on every run
6
categories, statutory, sanctions, regulators, courts, press, financial
3
sanctions lists screened against every named person
7
live stages you watch read it all, cross-check, and write the report
Statutory registerSanctions listRegulatorCourt & tribunalPress & OSINTFinancial
01 · 12 sources

Statutory registers · the public record

The official registers maintained by UK government bodies and devolved regulators. The legal record of who exists, who runs them, and what they've filed.

CH
Companies House
UK Government · Department for Business and Trade

The statutory register of every company incorporated in the United Kingdom. We read the full filing history, officers, persons of significant control, charges, and confirmation statements.

CC
Charity Commission for England & Wales
UK Government · Independent regulator

Register of all charities operating in England and Wales. We read trustee lists, governing documents, regulatory cases, annual returns and audited accounts.

OSCR
OSCR, Scottish Charity Regulator
Scottish Government · Non-ministerial department

The Scottish equivalent of the Charity Commission. Read for any entity registered as a Scottish charity, including trustees and accounts.

CCNI
Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Executive

Register of charities operating in Northern Ireland. Cross-checked for any entity declaring NI operations or trustees.

PSC
Persons of Significant Control register
Companies House · Beneficial ownership

The UK's beneficial ownership register. We read every named PSC and screen each against all three sanctions lists, plus the disqualified persons register.

INS
The Insolvency Service register
UK Government · Insolvency Service

Live register of insolvency proceedings, bankruptcy orders, debt relief orders, and disqualified directors. Critical for solvency signals on company reports.

HMRC
HMRC, Recognised charities list
HM Revenue & Customs

Charities recognised by HMRC for tax purposes (Gift Aid, charitable rates relief). Cross-checked to confirm a charity's tax-recognised status.

DPR
Disqualified Persons register (Companies House)
UK Government · Companies House

Directors disqualified from acting as a company director. Every officer and PSC in the report is cross-checked against this register.

DT
Disqualified Trustees register
Charity Commission for England & Wales

Trustees disqualified by the Charity Commission. Cross-checked for every named trustee on a charity report.

LG
The London Gazette
UK Government · Official Public Record

The official journal of public record. We read notices of insolvency, dissolution, wind-up petitions, and other statutory notices relevant to the entity.

EG
The Edinburgh & Belfast Gazettes
UK Government · Devolved official records

The Scottish and Northern Irish official journals of record, parallel to The London Gazette. Read for any entity with Scottish or NI activity.

MPR
Mutuals Public Register
Financial Conduct Authority

Register of co-operative and community benefit societies, friendly societies, and credit unions. Read for any entity registered as a mutual.

02 · 7 sources

Sanctions lists · three primary, four allied

Every named person in the report, trustees, directors, persons of significant control, is screened against three primary sanctions lists and four allied registers.

OFSI
OFSI, UK consolidated sanctions list
HM Treasury · Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation

The UK's authoritative sanctions list. Approximately 5,135 designated persons, entities and vessels. The primary screen on every Probitas report.

OFAC
OFAC SDN, Specially Designated Nationals
US Department of the Treasury

The United States' flagship sanctions list. ~16,000 entries including alias names. Screened to catch UK-incorporated entities with US-designated principals.

UN
UN Security Council consolidated list
United Nations Security Council

The list of individuals and entities subject to UN Security Council sanctions regimes. ~700 entries. The baseline international screen.

EU
EU consolidated financial sanctions list
European Council · European External Action Service

The European Union's consolidated sanctions database. Cross-screened for any entity with EU-resident principals or trade exposure.

SECO
Switzerland SECO sanctions
Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

Switzerland's sanctions register. Cross-checked for designations that may not appear on OFSI or OFAC, particularly in financial-secrecy jurisdictions.

DFAT
Australia DFAT consolidated list
Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Australia's sanctions register. Read as an allied jurisdiction screen, particularly for Indo-Pacific-linked entities.

GAC
Canada GAC consolidated list
Global Affairs Canada

Canada's sanctions list under the Special Economic Measures Act and Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act.

03 · 7 sources

Regulators · enforcement & conduct

The UK regulators that publish enforcement actions, conduct notices and registers of authorised persons. Read for both authorisation status and adverse history.

FCA
FCA Financial Services Register
Financial Conduct Authority

The register of every individual and firm authorised by the FCA. Includes scope of permissions, exemptions, and a five-year history of regulatory action.

FCA·E
FCA Enforcement & Final Notices
Financial Conduct Authority

Public archive of FCA enforcement actions, fines, prohibitions and final notices against firms and individuals. Read for the last ten years.

PRA
PRA, Prudential Regulation Authority
Bank of England

The UK's prudential regulator for banks, insurers and major investment firms. Read for authorisation status and supervisory notices.

ICO
ICO, enforcement & penalty notices
Information Commissioner's Office

UK data-protection regulator. Read for monetary penalty notices, enforcement actions, and reprimand letters against the entity.

CMA
CMA, competition decisions
Competition and Markets Authority

Decisions, infringements, and merger interventions. Read for competition-law exposure on company reports.

HSE
HSE, prosecutions database
Health and Safety Executive

Public register of health-and-safety prosecutions and enforcement notices. Read for the entity and named officers.

TPR
The Pensions Regulator
TPR · Statutory regulator

Register of prohibited and disqualified trustees, and notices of regulatory action against pension scheme sponsors.

04 · 6 sources

Courts & tribunals · the written judgement

Published judgements and decisions of UK courts and tribunals, read for any named officer, trustee, PSC, or the entity itself.

EWHC
England & Wales courts (BAILII)
British & Irish Legal Information Institute

Published judgements of the High Court, Court of Appeal and Crown Court for England & Wales. Read by named-party search.

SCS
Scottish Court Service
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service

Published opinions of the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary. Read for Scottish-registered entities and their principals.

UKSC
UK Supreme Court judgments
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Published Supreme Court decisions. Read by named-party search for any precedent involving the entity or its principals.

ET
Employment Tribunal decisions
Ministry of Justice · ET portal

Published employment tribunal judgements. Read for the entity as respondent, signals on conduct, discrimination, dismissal.

FTT·C
First-tier Tribunal (Charity)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service

Decisions of the Charity Tribunal, including appeals against Charity Commission enforcement. Read for the charity and its trustees.

UTC
Upper Tribunal (Tax & Chancery)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service

Upper Tribunal decisions on tax, chancery and lands matters. Read for principals named in published appeals.

05 · 5 sources

Press & open-source intelligence · the public conversation

Wire-service and broadsheet coverage of the entity, screened for adverse mentions. We only cite published reporting from named outlets, never anonymous forums or social media.

REU
Reuters wire archive
Thomson Reuters · Newswire

Reuters reporting on the entity, indexed by named-party. Read for the most recent five years of coverage.

FT
Financial Times archive
FT Limited · UK broadsheet

FT coverage of the entity. Read for adverse coverage indexed by name, with attention to investigations, regulatory issues, and litigation.

BBC
BBC News archive
British Broadcasting Corporation

BBC reporting indexed by named-party, including regional bureaux. Read for public-interest reporting that may not surface on financial wires.

GDN
The Guardian / Observer archive
Guardian News & Media

Coverage and investigative reporting from The Guardian and The Observer. Read for the most recent five years.

PA
PA Media wire
Press Association · UK national wire

PA Media's national wire, which feeds most UK regional press. Read for regional coverage that does not appear on broadsheet feeds.

06 · 1 source

Financial filings · the numbers themselves

We don't read summaries of the accounts. We read the audited accounts as filed. The auditor's opinion, the notes, the cash position, the reserves policy, the raw filing.

AC
Audited accounts (Companies House & CC)
Filed with Companies House or the relevant charity regulator

The actual filed PDF of the most recent audited or independently examined accounts. We extract reserves, income, expenditure, the auditor's opinion, going-concern statement, and the notes on related-party transactions.

How we read it

Sources are only useful
if you read them properly.

01

Read live, not cached.

Every source is fetched at the moment of generation. The report's footer prints the read time of each one, you can check we're not serving last week's data.

02

Cross-check before you cite.

A claim from one source is held back until at least one other source confirms it, or the claim is marked 'single-source' in the report. We don't hide where we're only seeing one side of the picture.

03

Cite the primary record, not the summary.

Where a regulator publishes both a summary and the underlying filing, we cite the filing. Where a wire service reports on a court judgement, we cite the judgement.

04

Name what's missing.

Where a register has no data, the report says so, explicitly, rather than letting silence read as absence of risk.

05

Log every correction.

When a customer flags an issue we've made, the correction goes on a public log with a date and a description of what changed. The log is part of the methodology.

All 38 are read for you.
The judgement is still yours.

See a sample report →or run a free name screen