Company extract in United Kingdom – official record
A company extract, or registered particulars, for a United Kingdom entity is issued by Companies House and lists the core details held on the public register – name, number, registered office, status, officers and filed history. It confirms none of this abroad without further authentication.
What this document shows
A correctly issued United Kingdom extract is sometimes returned by a foreign registry, bank or tender authority for want of a further authentication step; the register itself performs no such step, and the extract on its own carries no statement that any foreign body will accept it.
The record, drawn from the Companies House register: company name. Company number. Registered office address. Date of incorporation. Current status – active, dissolved or in the course of liquidation. Standard Industrial Classification code and a short description of the nature of business. Officers: directors and, where one is appointed, the company secretary. Persons with significant control, where the holding crosses the notification threshold. A summary of filing history – accounts, confirmation statements and registered charges.
Not every field returns a value for every entity. A dormant company files abbreviated accounts, and a company only recently incorporated has no filing history beyond the certificate of incorporation itself. Where a field exists in the schema but the underlying filing is absent, the extract shows the field as blank rather than omitting it, and a reader working from the record alone should treat an empty field as absence of a filing, not as absence of the fact.
A United Kingdom company document of this kind is a snapshot: it states what is on the register on the day it is drawn, not what was true a week earlier or what will be true after the next filing. A certified United Kingdom extract carries an additional statement from Companies House, or from a registered agent, confirming that the copy matches the register at the time of issue; the plain extract does not carry this statement unless it is ordered separately.
A reader comparing entities across several years does the comparison from the filing history list, not from a single field; the record does not summarise a trend, it lists filings in date order.
What it does not show
The extract does not state whether the company is solvent beyond its recorded status. Insolvency proceedings – administration, liquidation or a winding-up petition not yet reflected in the status field – sit on a separate record kept by the Insolvency Service and by the court handling the matter, not by Companies House.
It carries no assessment of good standing. A certificate of good standing is a distinct document, issued on request, confirming that a company remains on the register and has filed what is due; the extract alone makes no such confirmation and should not be read as one.
Beneficial ownership is shown only to the extent captured by the persons-with-significant-control regime; an arrangement structured below the notification threshold, or through a chain of overseas entities, will not appear here even where it exists. A separate register – the register of overseas entities – holds land-related ownership disclosures and is not part of this extract.
The extract carries no apostille and no certified translation unless one is ordered as an add-on; the plain document, on its own, states nothing about how it will be received by a court, bank or registry outside the United Kingdom.
Nor does the extract state whether a given director or persons-with-significant-control entry has changed since the date of issue; a filing made the same day may not yet appear, since Companies House processes filings on receipt rather than cross-referencing every extract already issued.
None of this is a fault in the record. Each limit reflects which register in the United Kingdom holds which fact, and a reader working across several matters is better served by asking which register answers the question, rather than by asking the extract to answer all of them.
How it is obtained
The underlying register is open. Anyone can search the Companies House online register without charge and read the same particulars that this record contains; nothing here is scarce or restricted at source. What is paid for is the handled route – a formatted, dated extract prepared to a form a receiving body expects, with certification and delivery arranged, rather than the underlying information itself.
The search fee charged by Companies House for this record is nil (fee as at 31 August 2026), in effect since January 2026. Source: Companies House · retrieved 31 August 2026
The normal handling turnaround for an ordered extract runs to two working days; a request marked rush shortens this, and a request bundled with certified translation or apostille runs to the schedule of whichever step takes longest. An extract ordered outside office hours in the United Kingdom queues for the next working day; the two-day turnaround runs from the working day the order and payment are confirmed, not from the calendar day of the request.
The document issues in English. Companies House does not produce an official translation as a matter of course, and a reader needing one arranges a certified translation as an add-on rather than expecting the register to supply it.
Whether a foreign applicant needs a UK representative, a UK electronic signature or a national identifier to complete the order is a separate question from the search itself; the access regime for this register is being confirmed against the primary source.
A United Kingdom company extract ordered through a registered agent follows the same underlying search; the agent's role is to retrieve, format and certify the record, not to alter what the register shows. A request for company extract / registered particulars United Kingdom made directly through the free register returns the same content as one placed through this service; the difference is in certification, formatting and confirmed delivery, not in the facts disclosed.
Reuse of the delivered document is confined to the matter for which it was ordered; the per-document reuse regime does not extend to republishing the extract as a dataset or redistributing it beyond the recipient named on the order.
Price, timeline and add-ons
Price is on request; a fee is confirmed before any order is placed and appears on the order form once the entity and jurisdiction are set. Add-ons – apostille, certified translation, courier dispatch and rush handling – can each be attached to an order, and any day they add to delivery is confirmed at that point rather than assumed in advance. Nothing about the price varies by how the record is used once delivered, only by which add-ons are attached to the order.
If the document does not exist in this jurisdiction or cannot be obtained for you, we say so before you pay and we do not take the order.
How long does a company extract / registered particulars from United Kingdom take?
The underlying Companies House search returns instantly and without charge. An ordered extract – checked, formatted and, where requested, certified – normally reaches the recipient within two working days; apostille legalisation, certified translation and courier delivery each add their own schedule, and rush handling shortens the base turnaround rather than the add-on steps.
Will a United Kingdom document be accepted abroad without an apostille?
Acceptance abroad is decided by the receiving court, bank, registry or tender authority, not by the register that issues the document or by this service. An apostille under the Hague Convention authenticates the signature and seal on a United Kingdom document for use in another contracting state; where the receiving body asks for one, it is ordered as an add-on rather than assumed.
What does a company extract / registered particulars in United Kingdom not show?
It does not show insolvency proceedings, which sit on a separate record; it does not confirm good standing, which is a distinct certificate; and it captures beneficial ownership only to the extent the persons-with-significant-control regime requires disclosure. Each of these sits on a different register within the United Kingdom, not on this one.
Does a United Kingdom company extract show directors' residential addresses?
A United Kingdom company extract typically carries a service address for each director, not a residential address; the residential address is held by Companies House but is not disclosed on the public record except in limited circumstances. A certified United Kingdom extract follows the same disclosure rule as the standard one.
Is a company extract the same as a certificate of good standing?
No. A company extract states what the register holds on the day of issue; a certificate of good standing goes further, confirming that filings due have been made and the company remains on the register. The two are ordered separately and answer different questions.
To order: state the entity, the jurisdiction and the date you need it by; we confirm availability and the fee before you pay. For a self-service, step-by-step route to the same document, see how to get a company extract in United Kingdom.
REGISTRUM obtains and delivers official records issued by public registers and licensed registered agents. This page describes what those records contain and how they are obtained. It is not advice on the legal effect of any record. To order, write to info@registrumfirm.com.