This guide explains how to use the search features on our website to locate information about UK companies, officers, and persons with significant control (PSCs). It outlines the types of searches available, the structure of search results, and best practices for interpreting and refining your queries.

Overview of Search Options

Our website supports two main types of search: General Search and Specific Search. These serve different purposes depending on how much information you have and how precise your query needs to be.

General Search is intended for broader queries, such as when you are uncertain of spelling or want to explore related records. In contrast, Specific Search is designed for situations where you have exact details, such as a full name or official company number, and want precise results.

General Search

Use General Search when the information you have is approximate or incomplete. This is particularly useful if public records contains clerical errors, or if you are unsure about the spelling of a name, want to explore variations, or are trying to understand how a name has been used across different periods or entities.

For instance, companies often change names over time, or similar names might be reused by different company numbers during different periods (e.g., year 2003–2005, year 2008–2010, year 2015–2019). General Search is designed to capture these kinds of cases.

This type of search tolerates small spelling variations and includes results across multiple fields. It looks for matches in officer and PSC names, their birth month and year, as well as in company names and numbers. For example, typing Charles Dickens may return records such as Charles Dickens (1912-02), Charls Dickens, or Charles Dickins.

Specific Search

Specific Search is appropriate when you have exact and complete information. If you know the full name of an officer or PSC, or the official company number, this search will return only exact matches.

You can use Specific Search to input the full name of a person, such as Charles Dickens, or a company number like 01777777. This ensures results are limited to those that match exactly, providing clarity and reducing ambiguity.

However, this search does not support partial names, full company names, or birth dates. For example, searching for Charles Dickens will only return results with the exact name, while searching for 01777777 will return the company associated with that specific number—such as British Airways Plc.

Result Format and Interpretation

Search results follow a standard format. Understanding the structure helps interpret what kind of entity each result refers to.

An entry like Charles Dickens (1912-02) indicates an officer or PSC named Charles Dickens, born in February 1912.

A result such as British Airways Plc (01777777) may refer to several possibilities:

• A registered company with the company number 01777777
• A company acting as a corporate officer under that number
• A company acting as a Person with Significant Control (PSC) with that number
• A company whose previous name was British Airways Plc and had that company number

It is important to note that our website displays all relevant roles in a single list. These may include both individuals and companies acting in multiple capacities, so care should be taken in interpreting the context of each entry.

Name Format Considerations

The search engine recognises names based on formatting. For example, Charles Dickens (first name followed by surname) is treated differently from Dickens, Charles (surname followed by first name). Try both formats if you are unsure how a name is stored.

Being mindful of these conventions can help improve the effectiveness of your search, especially for officers or PSCs who may be recorded in various formats.

Recommended Practices

To improve accuracy and efficiency in your search, consider the following recommendations:

• Use General Search if you are uncertain about spelling, want to search across different time periods, or only know part of a name.
• Use Specific Search when you have complete and exact information, such as a full name or official company number.
• Try alternative name formats if your initial search does not yield results.

By understanding these strategies and the structure of the search results, you will be better equipped to find the information you need on companies, officers, and PSCs across the UK.