Persons with Significant Control

A Person with Significant Control (usually abbreviated to PSC) is an individual or entity that holds a significant stake or influence in a UK company. Understanding who ultimately controls a company is an important part of due diligence.

The legal definition

UK law requires most companies to maintain a PSC register and file it with Companies House. A person qualifies as a PSC if they meet any of the following conditions:

• They hold more than 25% of the company's shares.
• They hold more than 25% of the company's voting rights.
• They have the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors.
• They otherwise have the right to exercise, or actually exercise, significant influence or control over the company.
• They exercise significant influence or control over a trust or firm that meets one of the above conditions.

A PSC can be an individual (a natural person) or a corporate entity, for example a holding company. When the PSC is a corporate entity rather than a person, it is referred to as a Relevant Legal Entity (RLE).

Why PSCs matter for risk

Knowing who controls a company helps you understand risk in ways that looking only at the company itself does not.

A beneficial owner who is on a sanctions list creates compliance risk for your organisation even if the company itself is not sanctioned. A PSC with a history of failed companies raises governance concerns. An opaque ownership chain, where the PSC is itself a complex holding structure, may be a signal worth investigating.

How Senserity uses PSC data

Senserity pulls PSC data from Companies House as part of standard enrichment. It runs tests in the Governance and Network categories using this data, including:

• Checking whether any PSC is on a UK or international sanctions list.
• Identifying PSCs who are connected to companies with adverse findings.
• Flagging companies where the PSC register is incomplete, exempted, or where no PSC has been identified.
• Mapping the PSC relationships in the network graph, so you can visualise the ownership structure.

PSC register gaps

Not every company has a fully populated PSC register. Some companies are legitimately exempt, for example companies listed on a regulated market. Others may have filed "no PSC identified" statements, which can indicate a genuine situation or a filing anomaly.

Senserity flags PSC register gaps as a finding. Whether a gap is significant depends on context. A recently incorporated company may not yet have filed its first PSC return, whereas a long-established trading company with an unexplained PSC gap is more notable.

The network map

The Network tab on any company profile shows the PSC relationships for that company in a graph view. You can expand PSC nodes to see what other companies they control, and filter the view to show only PSC links, only directorships, or both.

Last updated 21 April 2026.