By
August 11, 2026
What Company Information Is Public at Companies House?
Most information filed by a UK limited company with Companies House is available to the public.
Anyone can search the Companies House register and view information about a company, including its registered office, directors, filing history, accounts and certain ownership information. Companies House provides this information through its free Find and update company information service.
This transparency is an important feature of the UK company system, but it also means company owners and directors should understand exactly which details become public before filing them.
Not every piece of information supplied to Companies House is publicly visible. Information such as directors' residential addresses, the full day of their date of birth and the company's registered email address is normally protected from public disclosure.
This guide explains what information is public at Companies House and what generally remains private.
Yes.
The Companies House register is publicly searchable.
A person can generally search using information such as:
Company name
Company number
or
Officer name
The free Companies House service allows users to view company data and document images, including registered office information, accounts, officers, charges and filing history.
You do not generally need to be:
to search a company.
The company's main public profile can include information such as:
Companies House company records display the registered office and company status prominently on the public company overview.
Yes.
Every registered company has a unique company registration number.
For example:
ABC TRADING LTD
Company number: 12345678
The number remains associated with the legal company even if the company later changes its name.
Customers, banks, suppliers and other organisations can use the number to identify the correct legal entity.
Yes.
A company's registered office address is publicly visible on the Companies House register.
This is an important privacy consideration.
If you use your home as the company's registered office, your home address can therefore become publicly accessible.
For this reason, some company owners use:
The address must still satisfy Companies House requirements.
Not automatically simply because it is your trading address.
Companies House primarily publishes information that is required to be filed on the register.
If your trading address is also used as:
Registered office
or
Director service address
it can therefore appear publicly.
A separate trading address that has not otherwise been filed with Companies House will not necessarily appear simply because the business operates there.
Yes.
Information about company officers, including directors, is generally available through the Companies House register.
A public director profile can include information such as:
This allows the public to see who is responsible for managing the company.
Normally, no.
Companies House distinguishes between a director's:
Service address
and
Residential address
The service address is publicly available.
The residential address is normally protected from routine public disclosure. Companies House specifically confirms that residential addresses are information not normally published on the public register.
This is why directors who value privacy should avoid unnecessarily using their home address as their public service address.
A service address is an address where official correspondence relating to the directorship can be sent.
Unlike the residential address, the service address appears publicly.
A director might use:
Company registered office
Accountant's address
Professional service address
or another suitable correspondence address.
If the director uses their home as the service address, that home address can appear publicly.
Normally, no.
For directors and People with Significant Control, Companies House normally publishes only the month and year of birth rather than the complete date.
The day of birth is not normally shown publicly.
For example, the public register might show:
Born: March 1985
rather than:
15 March 1985
Companies House still holds the full date internally where required.
Director information available on the register can include nationality and country of residence.
This information forms part of the public officer record.
Directors should therefore ensure the information filed is accurate and update Companies House if relevant details change.
Occupation information can appear on historical or current company records depending on the filing and circumstances.
As part of recent reforms, Companies House has introduced broader options allowing individuals to apply to protect certain personal information, including business occupation in qualifying situations.
Yes.
Removing or resigning a director does not erase them from the company's history.
Companies House maintains a filing history and historical officer information.
A former director can therefore normally continue to appear as:
Resigned
with information showing their appointment and termination dates.
This provides a historical record of who managed the company.
Certain shareholder information can become publicly available through Companies House filings.
For example, shareholder information may appear in:
The extent of information available can depend on the type and date of filing.
Companies House records should therefore not be treated as private shareholder records.
Yes.
Companies are generally required to provide information about their People with Significant Control (PSCs).
PSC information can help identify individuals who ultimately own or control significant parts of the company.
A PSC may qualify because they meet conditions involving:
PSC records are generally publicly searchable, although certain personal information remains protected.
Normally, no.
As with directors, residential addresses for PSCs are generally not published on the normal public register.
A service address or other public correspondence information may still appear.
Companies House also provides protection procedures where individuals face particular risks from disclosure.
Yes.
Companies House introduced mandatory identity verification for directors and PSCs, with the regime being phased in from November 2025.
However, identity verification does not mean the public receives copies of passports, driving licences or other identity documents.
Those documents are used for verification purposes rather than being published as part of the normal public company profile.
No.
A Companies House personal code is used as part of identity-verification processes.
It should be treated as private information and kept secure.
The code is not intended to be displayed as part of the ordinary public company record.
Yes.
Annual accounts filed with Companies House form part of the public company record and can generally be accessed through the company's filing history.
The information visible depends partly on:
Potential viewers include:
Generally, yes.
The Companies House service allows users to view company data and document images, including annual accounts.
Someone researching your company can therefore review historical accounts that have been filed publicly.
This is one reason company accounts should always be prepared carefully and accurately.
No.
A Company Tax Return submitted to HMRC is different from statutory accounts filed at Companies House.
Tax Returns are sent to HMRC and are not generally made available through the public Companies House register.
However, statutory company accounts filed with Companies House are public.
The distinction is:
Companies House accounts → public
HMRC Company Tax Return → not part of the public Companies House register
No.
VAT Returns are submitted to HMRC rather than Companies House.
They are not normally displayed on the Companies House public register.
A company's VAT registration number may be publicly displayed by the company elsewhere, but VAT Returns themselves are not part of the normal Companies House filing history.
No.
Companies House does not normally publish the company's:
simply because the company is registered.
However, annual accounts can contain financial information that allows the public to understand aspects of the company's financial position.
No.
A company must provide a registered email address to Companies House, but this address is not normally published on the public register. Companies House confirmed during its 2026 WebFiling security investigation that registered company email addresses are information not normally publicly visible.
The email address is used by Companies House to communicate with the company.
A company telephone number is not automatically made public simply because the business is incorporated.
However, phone numbers can appear in documents if they are voluntarily included in filings or elsewhere by the company.
Businesses should therefore check documents before submitting them.
Potentially.
This is an important distinction.
Even where Companies House protects certain data fields, information voluntarily included inside a document that becomes part of the public filing history can potentially become visible.
Before filing a document, avoid unnecessarily including:
unless required.
Yes.
Companies House provides a public filing history for registered companies.
Depending on the company, this can include:
This can provide a detailed history of how the company has changed over time.
Yes.
Confirmation statements form part of the Companies House filing history.
They can contain or confirm information relating to areas such as:
This information can therefore help third parties understand the company's activities and ownership.
Yes.
Companies House publishes the company's SIC codes, which describe its reported business activities.
Companies can currently select up to four SIC codes to describe their activities.
For example, a company record might indicate activity connected with:
Software development
Retail
Consultancy
or another business category.
Yes.
Information about the company's share capital can appear in Companies House records.
This might include:
Historical share-capital filings can also remain available in the filing history.
Companies House records can include information relating to registered company charges.
A lender taking security over company assets may register a charge.
The Companies House search service specifically includes charges among the company information available publicly.
This can be useful to lenders and other parties assessing a company.
Not every ordinary debt owed by a company appears at Companies House.
For example, unpaid invoices to a supplier are not automatically published simply because they exist.
However, certain information connected with secured borrowing, insolvency proceedings or filed financial statements may be publicly available through relevant records.
No.
The company's Companies House authentication code is a security credential used for online filings.
It should be treated like a password.
It should not appear in your company profile or be deliberately shared publicly.
No.
Passport copies, driving licences and similar evidence used to complete Companies House identity verification are not published as part of the normal public register.
Companies House now requires identity verification for certain individuals, but the purpose is to confirm identity rather than publish the underlying identity documents.
In some circumstances, yes.
Companies House has procedures allowing individuals to apply to protect or remove certain personal information.
Current protections can include certain circumstances involving:
Companies House reported in its 2025–26 annual report that people can now apply to protect their date of birth, signature, business occupation and residential address in most qualifying cases.
Potentially.
Companies House provides procedures for applying to remove or suppress certain personal details from the public register, including home-address information in qualifying circumstances.
Changing the current registered office or service address does not automatically erase the address from every historical filing.
A separate protection application may therefore be necessary.
Potentially.
Companies House now provides expanded protections relating to personal information, and applications can cover signatures in qualifying circumstances.
This can be relevant where older paper documents display handwritten signatures.
Generally, no.
The principle behind Companies House is corporate transparency.
A registered limited company has statutory information that must remain publicly available.
You generally cannot create a UK limited company and then choose to hide:
simply for privacy.
However, personal information that does not need to be public can often remain protected.
Companies House continues to maintain historical information about dissolved companies.
Companies House has stated that its policy is to retain dissolved-company records for a significant period and, as of August 2026, is reviewing the retention period for those records.
Therefore, dissolving a company should not be viewed as a way to make its entire historical record disappear.
Because the Companies House register is publicly accessible, company information can potentially also appear in internet search results or be used by third-party business-information services.
Once information has been publicly available, changing the current Companies House record does not necessarily remove every copy from search engines or third-party databases.
This is another reason to think carefully before using private information in public company fields.
The UK company register is intended to provide transparency about legal entities.
Public information can help customers, lenders, suppliers, investors and other parties check:
Companies House is also expanding data checking and enforcement following recent reforms intended to improve the accuracy of the register.
Even though some information must legally be public, directors should avoid unnecessarily placing additional personal data into public documents.
Consider keeping private:
Home address where not required publicly
Personal telephone number
Private email address
Full date of birth
Bank information
Authentication codes
Companies House personal codes
Identity documents
Before submitting anything, ask:
Does this information legally need to appear in the public document?
If not, avoid including it unnecessarily.
Before filing information, check:
Will this document become public?
Does it contain a home address?
Does it contain a personal email?
Does it contain a telephone number?
Does it contain a full date of birth?
Does it contain a signature?
Could a service address be used instead?
Is there information eligible for protection?
Have sensitive security codes been removed?
This is particularly important for new company directors unfamiliar with how public the UK company register is.
Company owners should avoid:
Public information can include the company name, registration number, registered office, company status, directors, filing history, accounts, SIC codes, charges and certain shareholder and PSC information.
Yes. The company's registered office address is displayed publicly.
Normally, no. A residential address is generally protected, while the director's service address is public.
Usually only the month and year are shown. The day is not normally published.
Yes. Accounts filed with Companies House are generally available through the public filing history.
Certain shareholder information can appear in incorporation documents, confirmation statements and other company filings.
Yes, required PSC information is generally available publicly, although protected personal details such as residential addresses are normally withheld.
No. The registered email address is not normally published on the public register.
No. These are HMRC tax filings rather than public Companies House filings.
Potentially, depending on where and how it appears. Companies House provides procedures for applying to protect or remove qualifying personal information.
So, what company information is public at Companies House?
A considerable amount.
Anyone can generally search a UK company and see information including:
Company name
Company number
Registered office
Company status
Directors
PSCs
Accounts
Filing history
SIC codes
Share information
Registered charges
However, Companies House normally protects information such as:
Director residential addresses
PSC residential addresses
Full day of birth
Registered company email address
Identity-verification documents
Authentication and personal codes
The most important privacy rule for company owners is therefore:
Assume information submitted in a public Companies House filing may be seen by anyone unless Companies House specifically protects it.
Before using your home address, personal email, telephone number or other private information in company documents, check whether it actually needs to be publicly disclosed.
Companies House has also expanded the ability to apply for protection of certain personal details, including residential addresses, dates of birth, signatures and business occupations.
This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal, accounting, tax or privacy advice. Companies House disclosure and protection rules can change. Check current official guidance before submitting sensitive information.
