UK Business Check

POST /api/v2/uk_business_check operationId: uk_business_check

Live: https://gdapi.globaldata.net.au/api/v2/uk_business_check · Sandbox: https://sandbox-gdapi.globaldata.net.au/api/v2/uk_business_check

Performs a synchronous check of a single UK company by its Companies House company number. This is the UK equivalent of the Australian /business_check endpoint: one request, one JSON reply, no polling.

The response combines the Companies House company profile, officers and filing history into a single flat match object.

12 month window

Officers and filings are limited to the last 12 months so the response reflects recent activity rather than the full company record:

officers contains officers who were appointed or resigned within the last 12 months. Long-standing officers with no change in that period are omitted, so this is a list of officer changes, not the current board. Use /company_house_report for the full officer list.
filing_history contains filings dated within the last 12 months, newest first.

Note that the sandbox fixture companies carry fixed appointment and filing dates, so their officers and filing_history may be empty once those dates fall outside the window.

Company numbers

UK company numbers are always 8 characters. Most are numeric with leading zeros (e.g. 01234567); Scottish, Northern Irish, LLP and other registrations use a two letter prefix (e.g. SC123456, NI012345, OC301234). The number is case-insensitive; it is uppercased before lookup.

Not found

If the company number is well-formed but Companies House has no record of it, the call succeeds with "match": []. This is still a billable attempt.

Sandbox Environment

The sandbox dataset is deterministic and does not use live data. Any other company number returns an empty match.

Company Name	Company Number	Status
TEST COMPANY LTD	12345678	Active
SAMPLE HOLDINGS PLC	87654321	Active
DORMANT SERVICES LTD	11223344	Dormant
DISSOLVED EXAMPLE LTD	99887766	Dissolved
SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE SC	SC654321	Active
DELAYED REPORT LTD	55667788	Active

Request body

Content type application/json. The company number to check.

Field Description

Field	Description
`number`required	string The 8-character UK Companies House company number. Pattern: `^[A-Za-z0-9]{8}$` Example: `01234567`

numberrequired

string

The 8-character UK Companies House company number.

Pattern: ^[A-Za-z0-9]{8}$

Example: 01234567

Responses

200

Check complete.

application/json

Field Description

message

string

Always Ok on success.

Example: Ok

api_reference

string (uuid)

Audit reference for this call.

Example: fe4291ca-d831-4760-96df-c9cb03b3cd95

match

one of 2 shapes

The matched company. An empty array [] when the company number is not known to Companies House.

UK Business Check match

Field	Description
`company_number`	string Example: `01234567`
`company_name`	string Example: `ACME TRADING LIMITED`
`company_status`	string Companies House status, e.g. `active`, `dissolved`, `liquidation`, `dormant`. Example: `active`
`company_status_detail`	string or null
`type`	string Companies House company type, e.g. `ltd`, `plc`, `llp`. Example: `ltd`
`jurisdiction`	string or null Example: `england-wales`
`date_of_creation`	string (date) or null Example: `2001-03-14`
`date_of_cessation`	string (date) or null
`registered_office_address`	object
`registered_office_address.address_line_1`	string or null Example: `1 High St`
`registered_office_address.address_line_2`	string or null
`registered_office_address.locality`	string or null Example: `London`
`registered_office_address.region`	string or null
`registered_office_address.postal_code`	string or null Example: `SW1A 1AA`
`registered_office_address.country`	string or null Example: `England`
`previous_company_names`	array of objects
`previous_company_names[].name`	string Example: `ACME LIMITED`
`previous_company_names[].effective_from`	string (date) or null Example: `1998-01-01`
`previous_company_names[].ceased_on`	string (date) or null Example: `2001-03-14`
`sic_codes`	array of strings SIC codes as plain strings.
`officers`	array of objects Officers appointed or resigned within the last 12 months. Long-standing officers with no change in that period are omitted. Active officers are listed first.
`officers[].officer_id`	string or null Companies House officer appointment identifier. Can be passed to `/company_house_officer_report`. Example: `abc123`
`officers[].name`	string Example: `SMITH, John`
`officers[].officer_role`	string Example: `director`
`officers[].appointed_on`	string (date) or null Example: `2020-05-01`
`officers[].resigned_on`	string (date) or null
`filing_history`	array of objects Filings made within the last 12 months, newest first (from the 100 most recent filings on record).
`filing_history[].transaction_id`	string Example: `MzQ1NjAwMQ`
`filing_history[].document_id`	string or null Identifier for `/company_house_document/{documentId}`; null when no document is available. Example: `8j9Kx2`
`filing_history[].date`	string (date) Example: `2026-06-30`
`filing_history[].type`	string Companies House form type, e.g. `AA`, `CS01`, `AP01`. Example: `AA`
`filing_history[].category`	string Example: `accounts`
`filing_history[].description`	string Example: `accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity`

Empty array

Returned in place of an empty object for backward compatibility. When the associated object has no data, the API returns an empty array [] instead of an empty object {}. Clients should treat [] as equivalent to {} for these fields. This shape exists for backward compatibility and will not be removed. (array [max 0 items])

Standard error responses: 400 401 402 403 429 503 5XX See common error responses

Previous Company House Document Next UK Business Check (Bulk)

Request body application/json

{
    "number": "01234567"
}

Response

200 Check complete.

{
    "message": "Ok",
    "api_reference": "fe4291ca-d831-4760-96df-c9cb03b3cd95",
    "match": {
        "company_number": "01234567",
        "company_name": "ACME TRADING LIMITED",
        "company_status": "active",
        "company_status_detail": null,
        "type": "ltd",
        "jurisdiction": "england-wales",
        "date_of_creation": "2001-03-14",
        "date_of_cessation": null,
        "registered_office_address": {
            "address_line_1": "1 High St",
            "address_line_2": null,
            "locality": "London",
            "region": null,
            "postal_code": "SW1A 1AA",
            "country": "England"
        },
        "previous_company_names": [
            {
                "name": "ACME LIMITED",
                "effective_from": "1998-01-01",
                "ceased_on": "2001-03-14"
            }
        ],
        "sic_codes": [
            "62012",
            "62020"
        ],
        "officers": [
            {
                "officer_id": "abc123",
                "name": "SMITH, John",
                "officer_role": "director",
                "appointed_on": "2020-05-01",
                "resigned_on": null
            }
        ],
        "filing_history": [
            {
                "transaction_id": "MzQ1NjAwMQ",
                "document_id": "8j9Kx2",
                "date": "2026-06-30",
                "type": "AA",
                "category": "accounts",
                "description": "accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity"
            }
        ]
    }
}

400 Bad or missing input parameter shared error response

{
    "message": "string"
}

401 Unauthorized - The request is not authorized. shared error response

{
    "message": "API Key Inactive"
}

402 Insufficient Credit - Insufficient credit to process this request shared error response

{
    "message": "Insufficient Credit"
}

403 No access - No permission to process this request shared error response

{
    "message": "No access"
}

429 Rate limited - The request rate limit has been reached shared error response

{
    "message": "Rate limited"
}

503 DVS Service is unavailable. This is returned if the DVS returns a System Error result. The request was not successful and should be retried later. shared error response

{
    "message": "DVS returned a system error. Please try again later."
}

5XX Internal error - Internal system error shared error response

{
    "message": "Internal error"
}