Companies search

Searching for companies information with companies search (registered users only)

Getting started
Before you can access additional information on the companies your have searched on, you must first register with Company Searches.

If you haven't done so already, please call 0800 072 0144 for your FREE login details.

Guidance on search fields
With any companies search, there are three possible search fields. (Please note - you can only search using one of these fields at a time):

• Company name
• Registered number
• Parent registered number

Begin your search

Company Name
By selecting this field it is possible to search a registered company name against the Companies House register. The inclusion or exclusion of dissolved or name change matches can be selected by clicking on the relevant box at the bottom of the screen. In entering a search both spaces and punctuation are ignored e.g. 'Old Swan' will return Old Swan Limited.

If you search for a company such as Benstan Civil Engineers, it is far more practical to search for Benstan on its own. This is because Benstan is a very uncommon word, but both civil and engineers will return lots of hits.

Registered Number
Searching by registered number will display an exact match as all companies have a unique registration number. The search field is eight characters in length. Where a company number has preceding zeros, Company Searches will automatically search for an eight digit number. For example, registration number 0180000 can be entered as 1800000. However, Companies House alpha pre-fixes, such as SC for Scottish companies, must be entered.

Parent Company Registered Number
This field identifies all subsidiaries of the company whose registered number is entered. It will retrieve results from both the holding company number and the ultimate holding company number. As in the registered number field, leading zeros need not be entered. The following check boxes allow you to more closely specify the companies you are interested in.

Include Dissolved Companies
When searching by company name, the search automatically searches live companies on the database. However it is possible to include dissolved companies as well, by selecting the Include Dissolved box. This will then return with all live and dissolved matches relating to the company name search. This option is only available when searching by company name.

Include Previous Names
In order to ensure that you identify companies who have previously operated under the company name you are searching, select Include Previous Names. This search option is only available when searching by company name.

Non-Limited Businesses
Checking this box will make Company Searches search the Non-Limited database for the company name you are looking for as well as the Limited company database.

Please note that this is only relevant when searching by company name.

Need information right now?
Click here to begin your search, or contact us to discuss your requirements. Alternatively, you can find out more about us and what we do, or visit our FAQs to learn more about how to Search for company information and company reports.