What Companies House data tells you

What the Companies House register holds on every UK company, from filing deadlines and accounts to charges, what it says about risk, and what it leaves out.

Companies House is the UK's registrar of companies. Every limited company, LLP, and certain other business types incorporated in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland must file information there by law. That information becomes part of a public register that anyone can access, and it forms the scaffold from which Senserity then builds upon.

This article explains what the register contains and why each piece matters for risk assessment. For a checklist of what to check on a supplier, register and beyond, see Supplier due diligence in the UK, or for a quick check of one company, How to check a UK company.

Company details

Every company has a set of core details on the register: its name, registered number, date of incorporation, registered office address, company type (private limited, public limited, LLP, and so on), and current status.

The status field is particularly important. A company can be Active, Active - Proposal to Strike off, in Liquidation, In Administration, or Dissolved, among other states (see How company status works). Each of these has different implications for whether the company is still trading, whether it can fulfil contracts, and whether creditors are likely to be paid. Senserity monitors status changes and raises alerts when a company moves into a concerning state.

Officers and directors

Companies must register their directors, and many also appoint a company secretary. The register shows each officer's name, date of birth (month and year only), nationality, occupation, appointment date, and, if applicable, resignation date.

Senserity uses officer data in several ways. It checks whether directors are currently disqualified from acting. It looks at director tenure and turnover rates, because high churn at board level can indicate instability. It maps director networks to identify shared connections with other companies. And it tracks whether the company has maintained at least one active director at all times, as a gap in directorship is a compliance failure.

Persons with significant control

Since 2016, companies must identify and register anyone who holds significant control. A PSC is typically someone who holds more than 25% of shares or voting rights, has the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board, or otherwise exercises significant influence. See Persons with significant control for more detail.

PSC data reveals who ultimately owns and controls a company. Senserity checks whether PSC information is present and up to date, flags situations where no PSC has been registered (which may indicate non-compliance or opacity), and uses PSC records to build the network graph.

Filing history

The register records every document a company files: annual accounts, confirmation statements, officer appointments and resignations, charges, and more. Each filing has a date and a type.

Filing behaviour is one of Senserity's most reliable risk signals. Companies that file their accounts on time, submit confirmation statements promptly, and keep their officer records current are demonstrating basic corporate discipline. Companies that file late, miss deadlines, or have gaps in their filing history are more likely to have governance problems.

Senserity checks for overdue accounts, late confirmation statements, and gaps in the expected filing rhythm. A company whose accounts are significantly overdue often faces compulsory strike-off proceedings, which in turn affects its ability to trade and contract.

Harmless explanations for overdue accounts. A filing can be a few days late because it was sent close to the deadline or rejected for a technical reason and resubmitted. Companies House can also extend a deadline on application, and a newly incorporated company has a longer period to file its first accounts, which sometimes confuses a quick check.

When it becomes a warning. Accounts that are months rather than days overdue, a company that is late year after year, or overdue accounts alongside an overdue confirmation statement. Late filing is often the first visible sign that a company is in trouble or that nobody is looking after its affairs.

Annual accounts

Most companies must file annual accounts, though the level of detail varies by company size. Micro-entities and small companies can file abbreviated or abridged accounts that contain very little financial information. Medium and large companies must file more detailed reports.

The accounts tell you about a company's financial health: its assets, liabilities, turnover (if disclosed), and profit or loss. Senserity parses the structured data in these filings to extract key figures, calculate ratios, and compare performance across time. For companies that file as PDF rather than in the standard electronic format, Senserity uses AI processing to extract the data as part of enrichment.

The type of accounts filed also carries a signal. A company that qualifies as micro-entity is very small. A company that files full group accounts is operating at a different scale. Senserity factors this context into its Financial category scoring.

Negative net assets. When a company's liabilities exceed its assets, the accounts show negative net assets. It is common and not always a problem: start-ups funded by loans, subsidiaries funded by their parent, and owner-managed companies where the director has lent money to the business can all run with negative net assets for years. It becomes a warning when the position is getting worse each year, when the company also files late, or when the lenders are third parties rather than the owners.

Charges

A charge is a security interest registered against a company's assets, typically in favour of a lender. When a company takes out a loan secured against its property, stock, or other assets, the lender registers a charge at Companies House.

The charges register shows who holds the charge, what assets it covers, when it was created, and whether it has been satisfied (paid off) or is still outstanding. Senserity monitors charges as part of its Financial category. A company with many outstanding charges has significant secured debt, and the pattern of charge creation and satisfaction over time can indicate financial trajectory.

Harmless explanations. Most charges are ordinary secured lending. A bank debenture securing an overdraft or a loan is routine for a trading company, and an outstanding charge often simply means the company has a facility it may not be using.

When it becomes a warning. New charges registered while the accounts are deteriorating, several charges in quick succession, charges in favour of specialist or asset-based lenders, or a debenture covering all the company's assets that has just been created. Any of these can mean the company needs money and is giving up security to get it.

Insolvency

When a company enters a formal insolvency process, whether administration, liquidation, a company voluntary arrangement, or receivership, this is recorded on the register. Senserity monitors insolvency data as a Critical-severity signal. Active insolvency is one of the most serious risk findings and can trigger a Red Flag.

Confirmation statements

Every company must file a confirmation statement at least once a year, verifying that the information on the register is correct and up to date. The confirmation statement replaced the annual return in 2016.

A missing or overdue confirmation statement is a warning sign. If a company has not confirmed its details, the register may be out of date, and Companies House may begin proceedings to strike the company off. Senserity checks the date of the last confirmation statement and flags companies that are overdue.

Harmless explanations. A confirmation statement a few days late usually means an oversight. It becomes more concerning when it is months overdue, and especially when the accounts are overdue too, because together they are the usual trigger for compulsory strike-off.

Gazette notices

Companies House publishes certain notices in the London Gazette, Edinburgh Gazette, or Belfast Gazette. These include proposals to strike off a company, compulsory strike-off notices, winding-up petitions, and appointments of administrators or liquidators.

Gazette notices often appear before the corresponding status change on the register. A "Proposal to Strike Off" notice, for example, gives a company two months to respond before it is dissolved. Senserity monitors gazette notices as early-warning indicators, surfacing them as alerts before the company's status officially changes.

How Senserity checks the register

Every company Senserity assesses is checked against the register for its status, its filing deadlines, its accounts, its charges and its officers. These tests use Companies House data alone and are available on every plan:

What the register does not contain

Companies House data has real limitations. It does not include management accounts, revenue figures for small companies that do not disclose turnover, details of commercial contracts, customer or supplier lists, or any measure of operational performance. It does not cover sole traders or ordinary partnerships. And it relies on companies filing accurate information. Errors and delays in filing are common, particularly for smaller companies.

Senserity uses Companies House as its primary data source but supplements it with additional sources, including credit reports, adverse media, court records, regulatory databases, and domain security checks, to build a fuller picture. See What Senserity does for the complete list.

Last updated 2 October 2026.

What Companies House data tells you

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