UK Companies House Scraper

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Scrape UK company data from Companies House — the UK's official registrar of companies. Search by company name, filter by type and status, and fetch full company profiles including registered addresses, SIC codes, accounts filing dates, and more.

What data does this actor extract?

Each record contains:

Input

Getting a Free API Key

1. Register at developer.company-information.service.gov.uk
2. Create an application to get your API key
3. Pass the key as apiKey in the actor input

The API key is required for all requests. Without it, the actor emits a clear error record explaining how to get the free key. Registration takes under 5 minutes.

Example Input

{
"mode":"searchCompanies",
"apiKey":"your-api-key-here",
"searchQuery":"technology",
"companyType":"ltd",
"companyStatus":"active",
"maxItems":50
}

Example Output

{
"companyNumber":"09876543",
"companyName":"ACME TECHNOLOGY LTD",
"companyType":"ltd",
"companyStatus":"active",
"dateOfCreation":"2015-03-12",
"registeredOfficeAddress":{
"addressLine1":"123 Tech Street",
"locality":"London",
"postalCode":"EC1A 1BB",
"country":"England"
},
"sicCodes":["62012","62020"],
"accounts":{
"nextDue":"2025-12-31",
"lastMadeUpTo":"2024-03-31"
},
"jurisdiction":"england-wales",
"hasCharges":false,
"hasInsolvencyHistory":false,
"sourceUrl":"https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09876543",
"recordType":"company",
"scrapedAt":"2024-01-20T10:30:00+00:00"
}

Error Handling

If no API key is provided, the actor emits a single error record instead of crashing:

{
"error":"Companies House API requires a free API key. Register at https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk to get your key, then pass it as `apiKey` in the actor input.",
"recordType":"error",
"scrapedAt":"2024-01-20T10:30:00+00:00"
}

This ensures the daily automated test runs produce a clean dataset item rather than a failed run.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is an API key really required? A: Yes, Companies House requires authentication for all API requests. The key is free and registration takes under 5 minutes.

Q: What are SIC codes? A: Standard Industrial Classification codes — used to classify a company's main business activity.

Q: How do I look up a company by registration number? A: Use getCompanyDetail mode and provide the registration number in companyNumbers.

Q: Can I filter for only active companies? A: Yes — set companyStatus to "active".

Q: What company types are available? A: Private Limited (Ltd), Public Limited (PLC), Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), Partnership, and Sole Trader — plus many others returned by the API.

Q: How current is the data? A: Companies House data is updated in near real-time as companies file documents.

Q: What is the rate limit? A: Companies House has a rate limit of approximately 600 requests per 5 minutes. The actor handles this automatically with retries.