Data sources

Every value in a check is shown as its source returned it, with the time of the query. A UK check uses three kinds of source:

Companies House is read first. GLEIF and the sanctions screening then work on the company record it returns, never on the text you typed.

Companies House

Companies House is the official register of UK companies. The panel queries its API at the moment of each check. The home screen shows it as official register, live.

What a check reads

Informative only means that if the filings or charges query fails, the check carries on and the recommendation is not affected. The Sources table marks those two queries informative only. If the charges could not be read, Registered charges says "Could not be read from the register". Partly satisfied charges are shown separately and are not counted as outstanding.

The other four queries decide the status, the officers and the beneficial owners. If one of them fails, the check shows a warning and cannot be approved automatically.

Companies House publishes only the month and year of birth of officers and beneficial owners. The panel shows and keeps only those. Identity verification is shown as Companies House publishes it.

Officer and beneficial owner lists

The panel reads these lists 100 records at a time, until it has every current record, up to 1,000 records per list. Companies House lists current officers first, so former officers beyond that point are simply not read.

• If the current officers do not fit in those 1,000 records, the check says "The register lists more officers than one check can read: not all of them were screened, so the check cannot be approved automatically." The officers it did read are still screened.
• If the current beneficial owners do not fit, or a page of the list fails, the check treats the beneficial owners as unknown: "The query for beneficial owners failed: they are not known in this check. This is not evidence that there are none."

A shared allowance

Companies House limits how many requests the panel can make in a few minutes, and everyone using the panel shares that allowance. If a source shows rate limited, wait a few minutes and select Run again.

HMRC AWRS

The HMRC register for the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS) has no public API, so the panel cannot check it. Instead, every UK check has an Other checks row under Identity and registered office, with a link to HMRC's official search. You search there with the wholesaler's URN, which is printed on their invoices.

When the company's SIC codes say its activity is alcohol production or wholesale, the row is marked "relevant: the activity is alcohol production or wholesale" and the reasons include an info line: "The activity is alcohol production or wholesale: check the HMRC AWRS register with the wholesaler URN. HMRC has no API for it, so the panel cannot run that check." An info line does not stop automatic approval.

GLEIF

GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, publishes Legal Entity Identifiers (LEI) and which company owns which. Most small and medium companies have no LEI, and that is normal.

How the panel links an LEI

1. By company number. The panel looks for GLEIF records registered under the same company number with a UK address or jurisdiction. Records that GLEIF marks as duplicate or annulled are ignored. If exactly one remains, it is linked, and Linked by says same registration number.
2. By legal name, only if step 1 did not leave exactly one record. The panel looks for a record with a UK legal address and exactly the same legal name: the same significant words, ignoring endings such as Ltd or PLC. A record that states a different registration number is a different entity and is not used. If exactly one record is left, it is linked, and Linked by says same legal name, single candidate.
3. If several records share the name, none is linked: "Several GLEIF entities share this name, so none was linked rather than risk the wrong one."

When an LEI is linked, the panel also asks GLEIF for the direct parent and the ultimate parent. The Group structure (GLEIF) section shows the LEI, Name in GLEIF, LEI registration, Entity status, Linked by, Corroboration, Last updated, Next renewal, Direct parent and Ultimate parent.

How GLEIF affects the recommendation

The Sources table lists the GLEIF searches made for the check. The two lookups of the parent companies are not listed there.

VAT and VIES

VIES, the European Commission's VAT number checker, covers EU member states only. The United Kingdom is not one, so a UK check has no VAT section. The panel does not check UK VAT numbers.

Sanctions lists

Each check screens names against four official lists:

From each list the panel keeps the people and entities, with their aliases: other spellings and, where the list gives them, names in other scripts. Ships and aircraft are not kept, so they are not screened.

How often the lists are refreshed

• The panel downloads all four lists from their publishers every day, in a refresh that starts at 08:00 UTC.
• A check uses the most recent copy the panel has. A name a publisher adds after a download is screened from the next download.
• If a download fails, or brings fewer than half as many entries as the previous one, the panel keeps the previous copy of that list.
• List version, in the Sanctions screening section, is the publisher's date. It can be older than a few days, because publishers do not issue a new list every day. What decides whether screening runs is when the panel last downloaded the list.

When the lists are out of date

If any of the four lists was last downloaded more than 3 days before the check, the panel does not screen at all. The reasons say "Sanctions screening was not run: the sanctions lists are out of date." and the section says "Not run: the sanctions lists are out of date. Approval is not possible until every list is screened." The check cannot be approved automatically.

Run again does not help here: it asks Companies House and GLEIF again, but the sanctions lists are the daily copy either way. Tell your Bouncer contact. The same applies if you see "the sanctions lists are not loaded" or "the screening failed".

Who is screened

• The company itself, as a company.
• Every current officer, whatever the role, company secretaries included. A corporate officer is screened as a company.
• Every current beneficial owner. A corporate beneficial owner is screened as a company.

Not screened: former officers, people and companies that have ceased to be beneficial owners, the company's previous names, and protected persons, whose details the register withholds. A name that appears more than once is screened once.

The section shows how many names were screened, for example "12 names screened: the company, 7 current officers and 4 current beneficial owners."

If the register did not answer the officers or beneficial owners query, those people could not be screened, and the check cannot be approved automatically.

How names are compared

• Names only. Dates of birth, nationalities and addresses on the lists are not compared.
• Spelling noise is ignored. Upper and lower case, accents, apostrophes and punctuation do not count. Cyrillic letters are transliterated, and & is read as "and".
• Legal endings and titles are ignored. For companies, endings such as Ltd, Limited, PLC or LLP and small words such as "the", "and" or "of" are dropped. For people, titles such as Mr, Mrs, Dr or Sir are dropped.
• Word order does not matter. "SMITH, Jane" and "Jane Smith" are the same name.
• People against people, companies against companies. A person is compared only with people on the lists, and a company only with entities.
• Small spelling differences are allowed in longer words. A word of 5 letters or more may differ by one letter, and a word of 10 letters or more by two. Shorter words must match exactly.
• At least one word must match exactly. For a person, at least two words must match, unless the screened name has only one word.
• Rarer words count for more than common ones, such as a common first name or the word "bank".

Any listed name that is 80% similar or more is shown, keeping the closest name of each list entry and up to 20 matches per screened name. Similarity shows how close two spellings are. It is not a probability, and it is not proof that they are the same person or company.

Strong match and possible match

A match on a person is never strong. The panel compares names only, and Companies House publishes only the month and year of birth, so a name alone cannot confirm that two people are the same. The panel says so under the matches: "A match on a person is never strong: without a date of birth a name cannot be confirmed."

To review a possible match, look up the list entry by the reference in the Entry column, on the publisher's own list, and compare it with what the check shows about the person or company.

Saved answers and Run again

To save time, the panel can reuse a recent answer instead of asking the source again:

Only successful answers are reused. A reused answer shows cached in the Sources table, with the time of the original query: "A cached source shows the time of the original query." A fresh one shows live.

Run again ("Query every source again, without cache") asks Companies House and GLEIF afresh and creates a new check with its own reference. The earlier check stays in the history.

The Sources table

The Sources section at the bottom of a check lists every query made for it, kept for audit. You do not need it to decide.

• Columns: Source, Result, Queried at, Cache and Request.
• Result is one of ok, not found, timeout, unauthorised, rate limited or error. A row can also show the HTTP status and informative only.
• The Request link of a Companies House row is the address of its API, which needs the panel's key. Opening it in your browser will not show you the data. To see the company on the register, use Open in Companies House, under Register record.
• The sanctions lists are not rows here. They appear in Sanctions screening, with their List version.
• The footer shows the Check reference, the Panel and rules version and the SHA-256 of the recorded response.

Known limits for UK entities

• Dissolved companies still appear in the search. Their check is recommended reject.
• A proposal to strike off. Companies House still lists such a company as active, so the search shows it as active. The check treats it as inactive, because the company may soon be removed from the register, and shows a warning.
• Limited liability partnerships. Members count as people who run an LLP, so an LLP can be recommended approve.
• Limited partnerships. The panel does not count general or limited partners as people who run a company, so a check on a limited partnership goes to review.
• Registered overseas entities. The panel does not count managing officers as people who run a company, so these entities go to review.
• No registrable person statements are not read. A company that has told Companies House it has no registrable beneficial owner still gets the warning "The register publishes beneficial owners and none is declared for this company." Check the company's statement on the register with Open in Companies House.
• Exempt companies. A company exempt from declaring beneficial owners, for example because its shares trade on a regulated market, gets an info line, "Exempt from declaring beneficial owners: ...", and can still be approved.
• Protected persons among the beneficial owners are counted, but not screened.
• Company number formats. Ignoring spaces, the search treats your text as a company number only when it is 6 to 8 digits (padded with zeros to 8 if shorter) or 2 letters followed by 6 digits. Anything else is searched as a name. If the register ever lists a company whose number has another format, its check says "The register says this number does not exist." although the company exists. If that happens with a company you found in the search, tell your Bouncer contact.

What the panel does not cover

• Companies outside the United Kingdom.
• UK VAT numbers and the HMRC AWRS register (the panel gives a link to the AWRS search).
• Politically exposed persons (PEPs) and adverse media.
• Ongoing monitoring. The panel does not watch a company after the check or alert you when something changes. Select Run again to check it afresh.
• Checks in bulk, or a connection to your own systems.

Next: Questions and answers.