By Olive & Co Ltd

Companies House is the United Kingdom's registrar of companies and is an executive agency of His Majesty's Government, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by legislation. All registered limited companies, including subsidiary, small and inactive companies, must file annual financial statements in addition to annual company returns, and all these are public records.

The company dataset includes all statutory company information captured by Companies House: basic company data (company name, registered office address, company status, incorporation date, country of origin, company type, nature of business, accounting reference date, date of last accounts/annual return filed, date of next accounts/annual return due, previous names, share allocation) and all statutory filings by companies contained in the Register. For each company, basic information includes company type and registered office address, the nature of business or standard industrial classification (SIC), company status such as live or dissolved, date of last accounts or confirmation statement filed, date of next accounts or confirmation statement due, previous company names.

Since 2010 the Open Data Portal has been helping people to find and use open government data, and supporting government publishers to maintain data. Better data can help inform better policy-making and continuous improvement of services. Departments can combat fraud and reduce waste. By taking ethical, open, innovative and transparent approaches to data we can build greater levels of trust with citizens, whilst delivering more cost-effective and better targeted and tailored services to their needs. Data is at the heart of digital transformation and a part of the Government Transformation Strategy.