Use the Legal Entity APIs when you want the registry level data such as when:
- Looking at filings as submitted - accounts, confirmation statements, charges and other Companies House documents as they were filed.
- Confirming exactly who you're contracting with - for procurement, credit, legal or KYC workflows, the registered entity is the unit that matters.
- Analysing financial distress or a specific subsidiary's position - entity-level filings contain detail that a consolidated view deliberately smooths over.
Every legal entity links back to its True Company if you want to a view of the operating business as well as accessing the associated dataset such as fundraisings, grants, key people and patents.
Legal Entity APIs
Legal Entity data is available for UK, Irish and German legal entities.
These APIs return the as filed data which are different for each registry so have dedicated endpoints.
Company Registration Numbers
All of the endpoints use the Company Registration Number as the parameter to get the right data.
- For the UK this is the Companies House ID
- For Ireland this is the Companies Registration Office (CRO) number
- For Germany to create a unique ID we have combined the registered court and Handelsregister number in a consistent and structured way to make using these easier across the endpoints. This includes a three letter code for the court, then the Handelsregister number without spaces. For example:
- Berlin (Charlottenburg) HRB 12300 B is BER_HRB12300B
- Frankfurt/Oder HRB 12158 FF is FRO_HRB12158FF
- Saarbrücken VR 5160 is SAA_VR5160
The full list of court codes can be found here.
To find the right legal entity there is a search endpoint for each country where you can search by the registered name to find the Company Registration Number.
Data available
UK
UK Legal Entity Summary including:
- Incorporation date
- Cessation date
- Companies House status
- SIC codes
- Legal form
- Registered address
- Latest financial summary
UK Legal Entity Financials returns the financials statements which can be filtered by the date of the accounts.
UK Legal Entity Corporate Structure returns the connected companies in the structure including:
- The ultimate parent company
- The immediate parent company
- A list of the immediate child companies which return their child companies covering the subsidiary structure
UK Legal Entity Directors returns a list of the directors of the company which can be filtered by if they are currently active.
Ireland
Irish Legal Entity Summary including:
- Incorporation date
- Cessation date
- CRO status
- NACE codes
- Legal form
- Registered address
- Latest financial summary
Irish Legal Entity Financials returns the financials statements which can be filtered by the date of the accounts.
Germany
German Legal Entity Summary including:
- Incorporation date
- Cessation date
- Handelsregister status
- WZ code
- Legal form
- Registered address
German Legal Entity Financials returns the financials statements which can be filtered by the date of the accounts.
German Legal Entity Directors returns a list of the directors of the company which can be filtered by if they are currently active.