7 free Companies House queries every UK lender BDR should know
Direct URLs, ready-to-paste filters, and what each query is actually good for. Nothing requires an API key.
UK Companies House publishes the most authoritative dataset of UK businesses, by statute. The web interface at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk is free, has no signup, and reveals far more about UK SMEs than most BDR teams realise. Here are the seven query patterns we see lender BDR teams reach for most often — with what each one is good for, the URL form, and the limits.
1. Companies incorporated in the last N days, by SIC
This is the bread-and-butter BDR query — find UK SMEs registered in the last week in a SIC of interest.
URL form:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/advanced-search/get-results?incorporatedFrom={YYYY-MM-DD}&incorporatedTo={YYYY-MM-DD}&sicCodes={SIC}&status=active
Example — coffee shops incorporated in the last 7 days:
?incorporatedFrom=2026-05-28&incorporatedTo=2026-06-04&sicCodes=56102&status=active
Limits: the advanced search caps at 5,000 results per query and 20 pages × 250 results in the UI. The website doesn't expose a CSV export — for that you need the REST API. Borrowsignal effectively automates this query at scale, dedupes against your CRM, and adds phone enrichment.
2. Find every company a specific director sits on
Useful when you've spoken to a UK SME owner and want to find their other ventures — or to enrich a director-led prospect record.
URL form:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/{officer_id}/appointments
To get the officer_id, first search the officer by name:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers?q={Name+Surname}
Then click through to one of the listed appointments — the URL contains the officer_id. From the appointments page you see every Active and Resigned company they have served as an officer, plus dates.
Why it matters: a serial entrepreneur with three active Ltds is materially different to a first-time founder. The risk profile changes; the product fit changes; the outreach hook changes.
3. People with significant control (PSC) → find ultimate beneficial owner
For larger SME deals (Pro / Enterprise tier), KYC and AML matter. PSC data tells you who actually owns the borrower.
URL: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/{company_number}/persons-with-significant-control
This shows every shareholder with >25% of shares, voting rights, or rights to appoint majority of directors. For UK SMEs, ~90% of registered Ltds have exactly one PSC — the founder. Multi-PSC structures are often the signal of investor or family-trust involvement.
4. Filing history — has the borrower filed accounts on time?
URL: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/{company_number}/filing-history
The filing-history page shows every document ever submitted: annual accounts, confirmation statements, charges, director changes. Two things underwriters look at:
- Is the company up to date with confirmation statements (annual return)? Late filing = sign of distress.
- Is there a registered charge (a fixed/floating charge on assets)? Existing senior debt limits how much you can lend.
5. Charges — outstanding security on the company's assets
URL: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/{company_number}/charges
Lists every fixed and floating charge ever registered. For a working-capital deal, you want to know:
- Is there an existing charge in favour of another lender? If yes, your security position is junior.
- Are there charges marked "satisfied"? Good — historic debt has been cleared.
- How fresh is the most recent charge? A charge registered last week probably means a competitor just lent.
6. Bulk download from the data products page
Companies House publishes free monthly data products: the full UK company snapshot (CSV, ~6 GB compressed), the daily incorporation update, the daily officer change update.
URL: http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/
If you've ever wondered how data brokers price UK SME lists, this is where most of the raw material is sourced. The free version is ~12 months behind on enrichment (no phone, no AI hook), but it is the foundation. Building your own pipeline on top of this is a 3–6 person-month engineering project; Borrowsignal effectively packages the daily delta + enrichment + scoring + delivery for £149/mo.
7. The REST API for programmatic access
Once you outgrow the web UI, the official REST API is the way. Free, requires registering an application at developer.company-information.service.gov.uk, rate-limited to 600 requests per 5 minutes.
Three useful endpoints:
GET /search/companies?q=...— company searchGET /company/{number}— full profileGET /company/{number}/officers— directors + officers
If you want to play without writing code, our free Companies House quick lookup wraps the REST API in a CORS-friendly proxy and renders results inline.
The honest tradeoff
All of these are free. None of them, alone, produce the daily, scored, phone-enriched stream of borrower-intent leads that a 20-person BDR team can work efficiently. Building that on top of these primitives is a meaningful engineering project — typically 3–6 person-months in our experience.
That's the gap Borrowsignal fills, at the price of one BDR's daily coffee budget per month. The 20-leads-a-day free pilot is the easiest way to see whether the data quality matches what your team would build for itself. If it doesn't — these seven queries are still here, free, and authoritative.