Companies House Forensics for Journalists

1. Why company records are where UK corporate investigations start

Companies House is the UK registrar of companies, and its public register is one of the most productive open-source starting points available to a reporter. Almost every limited company, limited liability partnership and community interest company in the UK has a record here, and the documents they are legally required to file — incorporation papers, annual accounts, confirmation statements, changes of officer, and details of secured lending — are searchable by anyone, for free.

For an investigation, the value is not in a single record but in the connections between records: the same director across a dozen companies, a registered office shared by hundreds of entities, a pattern of companies that dissolve just before accounts are due. Reading these signals is a core skill for business, local-government and organised-crime reporting alike.

One caution frames everything below: the register was historically built for disclosure, not verification. It records what companies filed, not what has been checked. That makes it an unrivalled source of leads and a poor source of unverified conclusions.

2. When Companies House forensics matters most

• 1Establishing who really owns or controls a business behind a story, especially where a spokesperson or website obscures it.
• 2Following public money: tracing the companies awarded a council or NHS contract and the people behind them.
• 3Mapping a network of connected companies around an individual, a family, or a professional enabler.
• 4Testing the financial health of a firm making bold claims, using its filed accounts and any registered charges.
• 5Checking whether a director has a history of failed companies, late filings, or a disqualification.
• 6Corroborating a leak or tip against the public record before you rely on it, or the reverse.

3. The free register and the Companies House API

4. Reading the filing history and confirmation statement

The filing history is the company's chronological record: incorporation, appointments and resignations of officers, changes of registered office and name, accounts, charges, and the confirmation statement. Read it from the beginning rather than the top. Sudden clusters of changes — a new director installed, the office moved, and the name changed within weeks — often mark a change of control worth explaining.

The confirmation statement replaced the old annual return and confirms, at least once a year, that the company's registered details are up to date: registered office, officers, share capital, shareholders, SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes describing what the company says it does, and PSC information. Comparing successive confirmation statements shows how ownership and stated activity have shifted over time.

Late or overdue filings are themselves a signal. Persistent late accounts, a compulsory strike-off notice that is then discontinued, or a switch to dormant status can all indicate a company in distress or one being wound down deliberately.

5. Statutory accounts: micro-entity, dormant and full

How much an account reveals depends on the regime the company files under. Understand what each type can and cannot tell you before drawing conclusions from what is missing.

• ›Micro-entity accounts: the smallest companies file a minimal balance sheet with almost no narrative. Very little can be inferred, so treat the absence of detail as a filing choice, not evidence of concealment.
• ›Small-company accounts: can be abridged or filleted to omit the profit-and-loss account and directors’ report, leaving a balance sheet and limited notes.
• ›Full accounts: larger companies file fuller statements whose notes can include related-party transactions, directors’ remuneration, and group structure — often the most revealing part of a filing.
• ›Dormant accounts: a company declaring no significant transactions files dormant accounts and discloses almost nothing; note when a formerly active company goes dormant.
• ›Related-party notes: where present, these disclose transactions with directors, connected companies or owners, and are a prime place to spot money moving within a network.

6. The People with Significant Control (PSC) register

The PSC regime requires most UK companies to identify the people who ultimately own or control them: broadly, anyone holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights, anyone able to appoint or remove a majority of the board, or anyone otherwise exercising significant influence or control. The aim is to reveal the human beings behind corporate ownership.

Its limitation is that the entries are largely self-declared and, historically, unverified. A company can name a corporate PSC in another jurisdiction, record that its PSC is not yet identified, or simply file inaccurate details. Where a chain of ownership runs offshore, the PSC register may point only to the next company in the chain rather than to a person. Use it as the first thread, then follow ownership through the confirmation statement, shareholder filings and, where property is involved, HM Land Registry and the Register of Overseas Entities.

7. Mapping director networks: a step-by-step workflow

8. Disqualified directors, dissolved companies and charges

The register of disqualified directors, administered by the Insolvency Service under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, records people barred from acting as a director for a set period. A disqualification, or a pattern of failed companies preceding one, is highly relevant context for a subject presenting themselves as a successful businessperson.

Dissolved and struck-off companies remain visible on the register, and their historic filings are still readable. A recurring habit of dissolving companies — particularly by voluntary strike-off shortly before accounts or debts fall due — is a pattern worth documenting. Strike-off, liquidation and insolvency notices are published in The Gazette, often with detail beyond the company profile.

Registered charges show where a company has pledged assets as security for borrowing. The lenders named on those charges reveal financial relationships, and a charge registered or satisfied at a telling moment can help date a transaction. Charges are not evidence of wrongdoing, but they map the money around a company.

9. Red flags in company records

• ⚠A registered office shared by an implausible number of unrelated companies, beyond what a legitimate formation agent or accountant would explain.
• ⚠A PSC recorded as “not yet identified” or pointing only to an overseas corporate owner with no traceable human controller.
• ⚠Directors installed and removed in rapid succession, or officers who appear only briefly across many short-lived companies.
• ⚠Persistent late or overdue accounts, or a formerly active company suddenly filing as dormant.
• ⚠Companies that repeatedly dissolve and re-form under near-identical names, addresses or directors.
• ⚠Related-party transactions in the accounts that move value to connected companies or individuals without a clear commercial rationale.
• ⚠A gap between what a company tells the public it does and the SIC codes or activity shown in its filings.

10. The limits of Companies House data

• ›Much of the data is self-reported and was historically not verified before filing, so addresses, officers and PSCs can be inaccurate or fabricated.
• ›Nominee directors and shareholders can legitimately or deliberately mask the real controllers of a company.
• ›Filings can be late, incomplete or missing, and dormant or micro-entity accounts disclose very little by design.
• ›A company can be dissolved to shed a paper trail, though historic filings remain readable after dissolution.
• ›The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 introduces identity verification and stronger powers to query and reject filings, which will improve reliability over time but does not retrospectively validate old records.
• ›The register shows corporate form, not intent: a complex structure can be entirely lawful, so corroborate before alleging wrongdoing.

11. Pre-publication checklist

• I have identified each company by its Companies House number, not just its name.
• I have read the full filing history and noted any clusters of change in control, office or name.
• I have captured ownership from the PSC register and confirmation statement, and followed corporate owners as far as the register allows.
• I have mapped shared directors and registered offices, and verified what each shared address actually is.
• I have checked the disqualified directors register and the dissolved and struck-off records for the people involved.
• I have reviewed registered charges and any related-party notes in the accounts.
• I have corroborated every material claim with a second, independent source and not relied on unverified filings alone.
• I have given the subject a fair opportunity to respond to specific, evidenced points before publication.

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