What we check, and how the score works
Published in full, because a firm should be able to see exactly why it scored what it scored, and put it right if a record is wrong.
Where the data comes from
Every source is public and official. Each one has limits, and the limits matter as much as the data.
Companies House
What it shows: Company status, incorporation date, registered office, officers, people with significant control, filing history, charges and insolvency records.
What it does not: Only covers registered companies. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships do not appear. Small companies do not have to file a profit and loss account, so turnover is usually not public.
Companies House officer appointments
What it shows: Every other company each director is or has been appointed to, and what happened to those companies.
What it does not: Companies House does not guarantee that two identically named officers are the same person, so we match conservatively.
Companies House disqualified directors register
What it shows: Whether a disqualification order or undertaking is in force.
What it does not: Searchable by name only, so a match is a lead to verify, never proof. We say so wherever we show one.
HSE convictions register
What it shows: Health and Safety Executive prosecutions that resulted in a conviction.
What it does not: The register covers a limited recent window (it states five years) and new cases appear several weeks in arrears. A clean result covers recent history, not all history.
HSE enforcement notices register
What it shows: Improvement and prohibition notices served on a business. A prohibition notice stops an activity HSE considers to risk serious personal injury.
What it does not: Five-year retention and the same publication lag.
Employment tribunal decisions (HM Courts & Tribunals Service)
What it shows: Published tribunal judgments naming the firm as respondent.
What it does not: Decisions have been published online since 2017 only. A listed decision does not mean the firm lost: read the judgment.
ICO register of fee payers
What it shows: Whether an organisation is listed as paying the data protection fee, matched on the exact registered name.
What it does not: The ICO does not publish company numbers. A trading-name registration will not match. Timeouts and unreadable responses are shown as not checked, never as a tick.
FCA Financial Services Register
What it shows: Whether an authorised firm, appointed representative or warning-list record matches this company number or exact registered name.
What it does not: The official API needs a free key (FCA_API_EMAIL and FCA_API_KEY). Without those keys the badge is not checked. Substring hits are discarded.
Charity Commission for England and Wales
What it shows: Whether this company number or exact registered name is a registered charity in England and Wales, or whether Companies House lists the legal form as a charitable incorporated organisation.
What it does not: The official API needs a free key (CHARITY_COMMISSION_API_KEY). Without it we say not checked, unless Companies House already lists an England and Wales CIO. Scotland and Northern Ireland use different regulators and are not searched.
Trade, redress and supervision registers
What it shows: Which memberships this type of firm should hold, and which of them are required by law rather than optional: Gas Safe, TrustMark, NICEIC, FMB, FENSA, redress schemes, client money protection, AML supervision.
What it does not: We do not currently query these registers. They are guided checks: we tell you which ones apply and link you straight to each one, because these bodies do not publish machine-readable registers and Gas Safe blocks automated access entirely. Nothing about membership is asserted either way, and nothing here affects the score.
How the 0-100 score is calculated
Every firm starts at 100 and loses points for each signal found. The score is floored at 0. Green is 70 and above, amber is 40 to 69, red is below 40. This table is the whole list: the trade, redress and supervision registers above are guided checks rather than automated lookups, so they never move the score in either direction.
| Signal | Points | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Active insolvency procedure (liquidation, administration) | -60 | Money paid now may rank behind other creditors. |
| Formal insolvency proceedings recorded | -60 | Companies House records proceedings against the company. |
| Company dissolved | -60 | The company no longer legally exists and cannot hold a contract. |
| Possible disqualified director name match | -60 | Serious if confirmed, so it dominates the score. Always shown with the caveat that it is a name match. |
| Receivership or a company voluntary arrangement | -40 | The company is under an insolvency-related arrangement but is still trading. |
| Active proposal to strike the company off | -35 | The company status still reads active, so this is easy to miss. It can be stopped, but it means someone is trying to close the company. |
| Directors have 3 or more other insolvent companies | -30 | A repeated pattern is the strongest signal in company records. |
| HSE conviction | -30 | A successful prosecution for a health and safety offence. |
| Members' voluntary liquidation (solvent wind-up) | -30 | A planned closure with creditors paid in full, not a failure. It still matters, because the company is closing. |
| Phoenix pattern detected | -25 each | A failed company and a new one run by the same people, close in time. |
| Unusual company status | -25 | Any status that is not active, open or registered and is not covered by a row above. |
| Accounts overdue | -18 | A legal breach and an early visible sign of difficulty. |
| Directors have 1 or 2 other insolvent companies | -15 | Not unusual in construction, but worth asking about. |
| HSE prohibition notice | -15 | HSE stopped an activity it considered to risk serious injury. |
| Past insolvency history on an active company | -12 | Past difficulty, not current failure. |
| Directors have closed 5 or more other companies | -12 | Can be ordinary history, or a pattern of starting again. |
| Company under 12 months old | -10 | No trading history to check, so other evidence matters more. |
| Confirmation statement overdue | -10 | A cheap, simple filing. Missing it suggests neglect. |
| HSE improvement notices | -8 | HSE required something to be put right. |
| 3 or more employment tribunal decisions | -8 | May indicate how the business treats its people. Fewer than 3 are listed in the report but cost no points. |
| Registered office changed 3 or more times | -8 | Harder to trace if something goes wrong. |
| New charges in the last 12 months | -6 | Normal for growth, but can indicate cash pressure. |
| Mass-registration registered office | -5 | Usually a formation agent rather than a real trading base. |
| Company under two years old | -4 | Applied instead of the 12-month deduction once a company passes its first birthday. |
What the score is not
It is not a credit score and we are not a credit reference agency. It does not predict whether a firm will fail, and it says nothing about the quality of anyone's work. It answers one narrow question: does the public record contain anything that should make you careful before handing over money? A high score means we found nothing recorded, which is not the same as nothing having happened.
If you run a firm and think a report is wrong
Every item links to the public record it came from. If that record is wrong, correcting it at source (Companies House, HSE, or the relevant register) will correct our report when it next refreshes. If you believe we have matched you to a record that is not yours, email hello@checkafirm.co.uk and we will investigate and correct it.
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