Filing history available for some companies but not shown in the API response

Hello,

I am interested in retrieving the filing history of some companies (now dissolved). I’ve noticed that for some of them the API response confirms that the filing history is available but returns a total count of transactions equal to zero (e.g. 05207708).
I’ve also noticed that these companies are no longer present in the new beta website but continue to be present in the old one.

What is going on here? Is there some kind of error or the data is no longer present (but then I wonder why the API returns ‘filing history available’ in the response)? Is there any chance I’ll be able to retrieve the information I need for my list of companies?

Thanks for your support

If the company was closed / dissolved more than 6 years ago then you can’t get it via this API. See the forum article. (Exception - companies restored by court order.)

The example you give: 05207708 - “MONEY EXPRESS TRANSFER INTERNATIONAL LTD.” was apparently dissolved 07/05/2008 - so the data won’t be available in the CH API.

You can get filing info for this (and presumably other old companies) if you’re willing to pay via other CH services:

  • Manually via WebChHeck - if you enter the company number or name and search for it, then locate “Order information on this company” you’ll see a list of filings. One pound each.
  • If you were doing this a lot the automated way would be to sign up for the CH XML Gateway (the predecessor to the Beta API). There’s a regular subscription charge and also a charge for downloading documents. There’s info at the CH Services page, you’re looking for the “Companies House Direct (CHD)” section. If you search around there’s a forum too to check if there are any restrictions on e.g. old data.

More detail
You can find out if an old company (not in API) existed programmatically via the Company URI - see the guide. Note: you get limited data, the fields may not quite match those in the CH API, plus any error is returned as a chunk of HTML whatever format you’ve requested…

The behaviour of the API around data limits could IMO be more helpful:

  • Sometimes excluded data is treated as an “unknown unknown” - e.g. in your example looking for the company profile gives the same error as if the company had never existed:

    curl -u{API KEY}: “https://api.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05207708

    {“errors”:
    [ { “type” : “ch:service”, “error” : “company-profile-not-found” } ]
    }

  • As you found when looking for the filing history, it seems to say “something here” - or at least doesn’t give a 404 “Filing history not available for this company” as the documentation might lead you to believe - but then gives zero results:

    curl -u{API KEY}: “https://api.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05207708/filing-history

    {
    “start_index” : 0, “filing_history_status” : “filing-history-available”,
    “items” : [ ], “total_count” : 0, “items_per_page” : 25
    }

(These behaviours are the same if you use a non-existent company number).

Thanks a lot for your reply, it was extremely helpful.

this is our current position.
In response to some concerns about data privacy, as an interim measure, we stopped publishing information on companies dissolved more than six years ago on the Companies House Free Service.
However, dissolved company records over six years old can still be accessed via our other paid for search services.
This will continue to be the case until we have carefully considered our options and decided on the way forward.

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Hi Darran,

Is the paid search also accessible as an API? Where can I get more information about this service?

Best,

It doesn’t have an API but can be accessed through the XML Gateway. Some links that might help:

http://xmlgw.companieshouse.gov.uk/
http://xmlforum.aws.chdev.org/

The first one has some contact details and information about setting up an account.

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