What the London Gazette reveals

The London Gazette is the UK's official public record, published continuously since 1665. For Senserity's purposes, its most important function is as the formal publication channel for corporate insolvency and strike-off notices. These notices often appear before the corresponding status change is recorded at Companies House, making them one of the earliest publicly available signals of company distress.

Why gazette notices matter

When a company enters a formal insolvency process, the law requires certain notices to be published in the Gazette. These include winding-up petitions, court orders, appointments of administrators and liquidators, and creditors' meeting notices. Similarly, when Companies House proposes to strike off a company, it publishes a notice in the Gazette giving the company and its creditors two months to object.

For anyone monitoring a supplier or business partner, gazette notices are the point at which a private financial problem becomes a public legal event. A company may have been struggling for months, but the gazette notice is often the first external confirmation that formal proceedings are underway.

Notice types Senserity monitors

Senserity watches for several categories of gazette notice:

Winding-up petitions. A creditor (often HMRC) has asked the court to wind up the company. This is a serious escalation. The petition does not mean the company will definitely be liquidated, as it can be dismissed, withdrawn, or settled, but it signals that at least one creditor has lost patience and is seeking a legal remedy.

Compulsory winding-up orders. The court has granted the petition and ordered the company to be wound up. At this point, a liquidator is appointed and the company is effectively finished as a going concern.

Administration appointments. An administrator has been appointed to take control of the company. Administration is intended to rescue the company or achieve a better outcome for creditors than immediate liquidation. The company may continue to trade under the administrator's direction.

Creditors' meeting notices. A meeting of creditors has been called, typically as part of a creditors' voluntary liquidation. This notice confirms that the company's directors have concluded it cannot pay its debts and have initiated the wind-down process.

Moratorium notices. A moratorium gives the company a breathing space from creditor action while it explores rescue options. Moratoriums are relatively new (introduced in 2020) and are time-limited, but they indicate serious financial distress.

Proposals to strike off. Either the company itself has applied to be dissolved (because it has stopped trading) or Companies House has initiated the process because the company has failed to file required documents. A voluntary application is less alarming than a compulsory one, but both mean the company may soon cease to exist.

How Senserity uses gazette data

Senserity pulls gazette notices as part of its regular enrichment cycle. When a new notice is detected for a company on your watchlist, several things happen:

An alert is raised immediately. Gazette notices are high-priority events, and the alert will appear in your notification feed with the notice type, date, and a link to the original gazette entry.

The company's risk score is recalculated. Insolvency-related gazette notices feed into the Legal category, and the most serious ones (winding-up orders, active administration) contribute to Red Flag conditions that can push the overall score up significantly.

The notice is stored in the company's profile, where you can see the full history of gazette activity. This is useful for spotting patterns. A company that has had multiple proposals to strike off, each eventually withdrawn, may be in a cycle of non-compliance that keeps repeating.

Timing and the early-warning advantage

One of the most valuable aspects of gazette monitoring is timing. A winding-up petition published in the Gazette may not be reflected in the company's status at Companies House for weeks or even months. If you are relying solely on the Companies House status field to monitor supplier health, you will see the problem only after the court has ruled and the status has been updated.

By monitoring gazette notices directly, Senserity can surface these events as soon as they are published, giving you a head start on any response or contingency planning.

Gazette data is not enrichment

Gazette monitoring is part of Senserity's free enrichment. It does not consume credits and runs for every company on your watchlist. The data is sourced from the official Gazette feeds and updated regularly as part of the standard enrichment cycle.

Last updated 29 April 2026.