Companies House API Scraper: UK Company Directors, SIC Codes and Filings

What it does

The Companies House website is fine for looking up one company. It is slow when you need two hundred, and the official API makes you stitch together separate calls for the profile, the officers and the filing history, then deal with rate limits.

Companies House Enrichment does that stitching for you. Give it a list of company numbers, a free-text name search, or advanced filters (SIC codes, status, incorporation date range, registered-office location) and it returns one row per company with the registered address, status, incorporation date, SIC codes, current and resigned officers (name, role, appointment and resignation dates, occupation, nationality) and the 25 most recent filings (date, category, type, description). Data comes from the official Companies House API, so it is as current as the register itself.

It suits lead generation ('active scaffolding companies in Manchester incorporated since 2020'), KYC and supplier checks, and bulk enrichment of company numbers already in a spreadsheet. Privacy is built in: officers' dates of birth and personal addresses are never returned, only statutory business-register fields.

How it works

1. If you pass companyNumbers, those exact companies are enriched; otherwise the actor runs an advanced search on SIC code, status, incorporation dates and location, or a plain name search with searchTerms.
2. For each company it calls the official Companies House API for the profile, then (if enabled) the officers list and the filing history.
3. Responses are merged into one clean row; officers are capped at 100 per company and filings at the 25 most recent.
4. Requests stay within the Companies House rate limit of 600 requests per 5 minutes (a fully enriched company uses 3), and you can add your own free API key for dedicated throughput.
5. Mistyped or missing company numbers are skipped and never charged, and the run stops cleanly at maxResults or your spend limit.

Input example

A typical run input (JSON). Every field is also available as a form in the Apify console.

{
  "sicCodes": [
    "43991"
  ],
  "companyStatus": "active",
  "incorporatedFrom": "2020-01-01",
  "location": "Manchester",
  "maxResults": 200,
  "includeOfficers": true,
  "includeFilings": true
}

Output example

Each row is one company, with officers and filings attached as nested lists (summarised here):

Pricing

Pay per event: you are charged only for the results you receive, with no subscription. Set a maximum total charge on any run and it stops cleanly at the cap.

Prices are read from the live Apify Store listing when this page is built. The listing is always authoritative.

Use cases

How it compares

For a handful of companies the free website is all you need, and developers with time to spare can call the free API directly. This actor earns its keep when you need hundreds of enriched rows in a spreadsheet-ready format without writing the glue code.

Limits and honest notes

• Official Companies House data only — UK-registered companies (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland).
• Privacy by design: officers' dates of birth and personal addresses are never returned, only statutory business-register fields.
• Filing history returns the 25 most recent filings per company; officers are capped at 100 per company.
• Throughput is governed by the Companies House rate limit (600 requests/5 min). A fully-enriched company uses 3 requests ≈ 180 companies per 5 minutes. Add your own free API key in the input for dedicated throughput.
• Companies not found (e.g. mistyped numbers) are skipped and never charged.
• Respects your run budget: set a maximum total charge and the actor stops cleanly at the cap.

FAQ

Use it from code

Run the actor through the Apify API with the input above.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/actor-forge~uk-companies-house-enrichment/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"sicCodes": ["43991"], "companyStatus": "active", "incorporatedFrom": "2020-01-01", "location": "Manchester", "maxResults": 200, "includeOfficers": true, "includeFilings": true}'

JavaScript (Node.js)

// Node.js 18+ (built-in fetch). Set APIFY_TOKEN in your environment.
const input = {
  "sicCodes": [
    "43991"
  ],
  "companyStatus": "active",
  "incorporatedFrom": "2020-01-01",
  "location": "Manchester",
  "maxResults": 200,
  "includeOfficers": true,
  "includeFilings": true
};

const res = await fetch(
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/actor-forge~uk-companies-house-enrichment/run-sync-get-dataset-items",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.APIFY_TOKEN}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify(input),
  }
);
const items = await res.json();
console.log(items.length, items[0]);

Python

# pip install apify-client   (set APIFY_TOKEN in your environment)
import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run_input = {
    "sicCodes": [
        "43991"
    ],
    "companyStatus": "active",
    "incorporatedFrom": "2020-01-01",
    "location": "Manchester",
    "maxResults": 200,
    "includeOfficers": True,
    "includeFilings": True
}

run = client.actor("actor-forge/uk-companies-house-enrichment").call(run_input=run_input)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

The run-sync-get-dataset-items endpoint waits for the run (up to 5 minutes) and returns the dataset rows directly. For longer runs, start the run asynchronously and read the dataset when it finishes, as the Python example does. Replace APIFY_TOKEN with your own token from the Apify console.

Step-by-step guides

Related actors

More Business Leads & Company Data tools · All actors