Duplicate API Calls Required - Officer Name

API Enhancements
#1

Hello,

We are attempting to fetch the full name of an officer, including their name elements (Title/Honours etc) from the officer endpoint, for example: https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/14196465/appointments/_vqlnnksIcruQVm7Gcu0ZUiIQpM

Unfortunately, this information is not here (nor on the streaming API), and we are forced to fetch this by calling the officer appointments API, for example: https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/W1bL_2xQv84xS2-l-HEcbkQ7RSs/appointments

In addition, we may need to loop through this endpoint for all of the pages, to find the relevant appointment for the given company. This is because the names may differ - perhaps the officer marries, of submits their name in a different format.

The impact of this, is between 1 and several hundred/thousands of additional API calls per officer, to obtain the correct information from the service. Ultimately resulting in throttling.

This can be resolved in one of two ways:

  1. Add the name_elements to the company appointments API, and ideally officer streaming API
  2. Add an additional filter to the office appointments API to allow filtering by company

Option 2 is more of a temporary patch, and option 1 is preferred.

Please let us know your thoughts.

Regards,
James

#2

I initially didn’t recognise the first URL there - but of course it’s just the individual officer details per here:

https://developer-specs.company-information.service.gov.uk/companies-house-public-data-api/reference/officers/get-a-company-officer-appointment

(We just get the whole officers list - which has the same information but will require fewer requests:

https://developer-specs.company-information.service.gov.uk/companies-house-public-data-api/reference/officers/list
)

I agree - this has been missing from the start, despite Companies House apparently collecting this information eg. on incorporation / add director or secretary filings. It’s particularly noticeable as (as you note) that is available in the general Officer appointments Endpoint and the PSC endpoint.

As to how likely to happen - there were requests in 2018…

#3

Yes, I agree that it should have been there a long time ago, well before 2018!

I’m wondering whether it falls under GDPR right to rectification, however. The link above is myself, but the data is incomplete. This could impact my ability to be KYC/KYB checked after all.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/individual-rights/right-to-rectification/

Perhaps if there’s no response, as per the 2018 topic, this will be the approach I proceed with.

#4

Well … good luck with that! It would be nice, but … I am not legally qualified but I think that’s a stretch. I believe they do present the whole text - just not sliced and diced. (Could they? Presumably, if it’s available via officers appointments.)

Companies House have additionally some exemptions as it is their legal duty to record certain things and make them available to the public.

I think Companies House have not been “over-funded for the API” and there are several outstanding matters of varying importance - so set your expectations accordingly.

Good luck.