Guide
Where UK credit data comes from
The official and commercial sources behind a UK company credit report, and how up to date the information is.
Companies House
The statutory register of UK companies. It provides the company’s identity, status, registered office, directors and people with significant control, and the filed accounts that underpin the financial analysis.
The Gazette
The UK’s official public record of notices, including insolvency and winding-up notices. These feed the public-record section of a report and are an important risk signal.
The Registry Trust
Maintains the official register of county court judgments (CCJs) in England and Wales, and equivalent records elsewhere in the UK. CCJ data in a report is sourced from here.
Commercial payment and risk data
Alongside the official record, commercial data on payment behaviour and risk from a credit reference agency helps build the credit score and the suggested credit limit, where that information is held.
How current is it?
Reports are produced from the latest data held at the time of your search. Companies House filings, Gazette notices and new judgments are reflected as they are published, and the commercial payment and risk data is refreshed frequently, so a report is a current snapshot rather than a stored document. Because the picture can change, it is worth re-checking an account before a large order, or at regular intervals for customers you already trade with.
FAQs
Is the data official?
The backbone is official: Companies House for filings and directors, The Gazette for insolvency notices and the Registry Trust for county court judgments. This is combined with commercial payment and risk data to produce the score and the suggested credit limit.
Can I just look at Companies House myself?
You can — the statutory filings are public at Companies House. A company credit report does the work of gathering, scoring and interpreting that data alongside payment and risk information, and turns it into a credit score and a suggested limit you can act on.
How far back does the financial data go?
Where a company has filed them, reports typically show several years of accounts so you can see the trend, not just the latest snapshot — a direction of travel is often more telling than any single year.
Related guides
What is a company credit report?
Read the guide →What’s in a company credit report
Read the guide →How to read a company credit report
Read the guide →