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UK and Ireland Company Types

Each company on ukdata.com has a dedicated company details page where all of the available company information is listed. The company types and status will indicate how much information (including financial figures) is available in the credit reports.

Company type | Company status | Registration number prefix

Company Types incorporated

There are a number of different types of company incorporated and this effects the amount of information filed. For example, a Public Limited company will file full accounts whereas a Limited Partnership will not.

Company Type	Description	File accounts?
Private Limited with Share Capital	Private Limited company with issued share capital.	Yes
Private Limited company without share capital	Private Limited company without issued share capital.	Yes
Private Company Limited by Guarantee	A Privately Limited company with no issued share capital. It is only liable for the amount of the guarantee stated by the members. This is a common way for a charity or non-profit making organisation to operate.	Yes
Private Unlimited with Share Capital	Company has registered its name at Companies House, but there is no limited liability. The company members are liable only up to the amount allotted in share capital.	No
Private Unlimited without share capital	Private Unlimited company, the company members have no limited liability and are not obliged to file accounts.	No
Public Limited with Share Capital	Public Limited company with issued share capital.	Yes
Limited Partnership	Limited Partnership will register its name with companies house, but will not file any accounts.	No
Company converted closed	No accounts filed	No
UCITS	Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities. Sole object is the collective investment in transferable securities of capital raised from the public. Operate on the principle of spreading risk.
EEIG	European Economic Interest Groupings. Does not itself record a profit or loss, with profits and losses returned to individual members. The company will co-operate across national frontiers within the EU. May not have more than 20 members, not permitted to invite investment from the public.

Company status

As well as different types of company, there are different statuses. The status of company will effect the amount of information available. See some common status's below. If you are in doubt of which document to purchase or unsure what information will be included, please contact our office.

Company Status	File accounts?
Live A limited company is live if it is not dissolved.	Depends on the type.
Small unquoted company filing only an abbreviated balance sheet Small company has taken advantage of exemption to file unaudited accounts with a compilation report Small - co. has taken advantage of exemption to file unaudited accounts	Yes. Not required to disclose turnover or profit and loss.
Medium sized unquoted company exempt from filing a turnover figure	Yes. Not required to disclose turnover.
Large unquoted company	Yes.
Non-trading company A company is deemed non trading if it is live with no significant accounting transactions in the latest analysed accounts, but without any documents filed to indicate insolvency. This status is assigned internally by UK Data accounts analysts and is not used by Companies House.	Yes.
Dormant company A limited company is dormant if it is live, has no significant accounting transactions during the latest accounting period and has subsequently passed a special resolution to file Dormant accounts at Companies House. There is a subtle difference between dormant and non trading. To ascertain whether a company is non trading the accounts must be inspected by an UK Data analyst and identified as non trading. Dormant is a legal term used in the Companies Act to describe non trading companies that have passed a special resolution to file dormant accounts at Companies House. These are much simpler than conventional accounts and are not audited. It is possible to be a non trading company that does not take advantage of the legal exemption to file dormant accounts. It can therefore be said that ALL dormant companies are non traders but NOT all non traders are dormant.	Yes. Dormant Accounts.
Dissolved company A limited company is dissolved if it has been struck off the register of live companies by Companies House. These companies have no formal existence and are effectively a historical record of the once live company.	Only if filed previous to dissolution.
Winding up of a company If a company gets into trouble one of its customers can file a winding up petition against the company at a County Court under civil law and publish that fact in The London Gazette. Evidence to strengthen the case comes from other customers who now get to see the publicly advertised petition. The company then needs to come to a financial agreement with its creditors otherwise when the case comes to court the judge can decide to wind the company up. A company can still trade and act as normal while the winding up petition is in force. If UK Data have not captured notice of a resolution to the matter within 3 months of the first notification the status is removed. This is because it is not necessary to publish notification of such a resolution so UK Data have made a decision that it must have been resolved within that period of time.	Only if filed previous to Winding up.
Company in receivership A receiver is appointed by the creditors to take control of a company for the purpose of realising any assets that allow debts to creditors to be paid.	Only if filed previous to receivership.
Company in Administration An administrator is appointed by the Court to manage the affairs of a company if the Court feels that the company can survive and not become insolvent.	Only if filed previous to administration.
Company in liquidation If there are not enough assets available to pay the creditors then the company cannot continue to trade and becomes insolvent. A Liquidator is then appointed to wind up the company by selling off the assets for distribution amongst the creditors.	Only if filed previous to liquidation.
Voluntary Arrangement Voluntary Arrangement allows the company to continue trading under a binding agreement with its creditors.	Only if filed previous to volutary arranegement.
Not analysed A company shows the status not analysed if it is a new company and therefore no information is available to state whether is trading, non trading or dormant. Insurance and financial sector companies also show the status not analysed because of the type of accounts these companies file, due to the complex nature of these companies activities UK Data cannot calculate a meaningful sales figure. Also insurance/financial companies do not present Balance Sheets in the traditional format adopted under the Companies Act.	Not yet filed.
Section 17 (Republic of Ireland companies only) Section 17 recognises that another company has guaranteed the entire debts/liabilities of the subject company, whereby the subject co. is exempt from filling accounts. Under such circumstances the majority of companies tend to file a report stating section 17 exemption, followed (presumably for information purposes) by the accounts of the guarantor. Guarantors are usually holding companies.	Not filed. Accounts filed by the holding company.
Company Size / Status unknown	There is not enough information available

Companies registration number alpha pre-fixes

There are several alpha pre-fixes which are attached to company registration numbers. These are descriptive codes indicating the type of company registration. Some of these codes will indicate that UK Data Ltd may or may not have analysed the financial data. See an explanation for the various codes below.

Value	Description	Analysed accounts
AC	Assurance company	Yes
E	Republic of Ireland Company	Yes
FC	Foreign Company	Y (on Request)
IP	Industrial Provident	Y (If accounts available)
LP	Limited Partnership	N
NC	Northern Irish Credit Union	Y
NF	Northern Irish Foreign Company	Y (if audited accounts)
NI	Northern Irish Company	Y
NP	Northern Irish Industrial Provident	Y (If accounts available)
NE	Northern Irish Reconstituted company	Y
OC	Other	N
OC3	Limited Liability Partnerships	Y (If accounts available)
SO3	Limited Liability Partnerships - Scottish	Y (If accounts available)
RC	Royal Charter	N
SA	Assurance Company Scottish	Y (If available)
SC	Scottish Company	Y
SF	Foreign Company - Scottish	Y (On Request)
SL	Limited Partnership - Scottish	N
SO	Other - Scottish	N
SP	Industrial Provident - Scottish	N
SR	Royal Charter - Scottish	N
SZ	Not Companies Act - Scottish	Y (If accounts available)
ZC	Not Companies Act - England & Wales	Y (If accounts available)
IC	Open Ended Investment Trust	N
SI	Open Ended Investment Trust - Scottish	N