Almost all the information on the Companies House register of people with significant control (PSC) is public, according to government guidance published on 19 November 2025. The two exceptions are a person’s usual residential address and the day of their date of birth. For anyone checking who stands behind the buyer of an accountancy or law practice, that makes the PSC entry and the charges entry on the buyer’s record two useful checks. Both have limits, which the Companies House and government guidance set out.
What a PSC entry is
A PSC is an individual, not a company. The guidance gives four conditions for a company: holding, directly or indirectly, more than 25% of the shares, or more than 25% of the voting rights, or the right to appoint or remove a majority of the directors, or the right to exercise, or actually exercising, significant influence or control. A fifth condition covers an individual who has, or exercises, significant influence or control over a trust or firm that is not a legal entity, where the trustees or members of that trust or firm meet one of the first four conditions.
Limited liability partnerships are covered too, with their own conditions in Annex 3 of the guidance. They use more than 25% of the surplus assets on a winding up in place of shares. Where the LLP agreement does not say who has rights to surplus assets, the guidance tells the LLP to treat those assets as split equally between them.
The public entry for an individual shows name, month and year of birth, nationality, country or area of residence, service address, the date the person became a PSC and which conditions they meet. For shareholdings the register records a band, not an exact figure: more than 25% but not more than 50%, more than 50% but less than 75%, or 75% or more.
Where the chain stops
When a company is owned by another legal entity, the register does not follow the chain to the top. A legal entity is reported only if it is both "relevant" and "registrable". It is relevant if it meets one of the conditions and is itself required to report PSCs, or has voting shares admitted to trading on a listed set of markets. It is registrable if it is the first relevant legal entity in the ownership chain. The guidance gives examples of entities that are not relevant: an overseas company without shares on those markets, and FCA-registered mutuals or investment vehicles without shares on those markets. If an owner is not a relevant legal entity, such as an overseas company without listed shares, the company must look through it to the individuals who hold a majority stake in it, and those individuals are reported as the PSCs.
The table shows what that means for a three-level structure. The names are generic and the structure is illustrative; it is not any real firm.
| Entity (illustrative) | What its own PSC entry would show | What that entry leaves out |
|---|---|---|
| Practice LLP (the target) | Practice Holdings Ltd, as registrable legal entity, with its ownership band | Anyone above Practice Holdings Ltd |
| Practice Holdings Ltd | Platform Midco Ltd, as registrable legal entity, with its band | Anyone above Platform Midco Ltd |
| Platform Midco Ltd | The next relevant legal entity above it, or individuals who meet a condition | An owner that is not “relevant”, such as an overseas vehicle without listed shares, cannot appear as a legal entity; the entry shows the individuals with a majority stake behind it instead |
So the entry lets you climb the chain one step at a time, by opening each owner’s own record. It does not promise that the climb ends at the investor named in a press release. A minority holder below the 25% line on shares or votes alone is not required to appear either.
What a charges entry is
On GOV.UK, Companies House defines a charge as "the security a company gives for a loan"; a mortgage is one type. Any person interested in the charge, including the lender, can register it, and what is sent appears on the company’s public record. The deadline is 21 days from the day after the charge is created, and a late filing needs a court order. LLPs use a separate form, LL MR01, and the same 21-day period applies to them under the Limited Liability Partnerships (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2009 (regulation 32).
The Companies House API specification, which describes the data held for each charge, lists these fields: the charge status (outstanding, fully satisfied, part-satisfied or satisfied), the person or persons entitled, the date created and the date delivered, a classification, particulars of the property covered, and, where given, the amount or obligation secured.
Two limits follow from the guidance. A charge created in the past three weeks may not be on the record yet. And paying off a loan does not remove its charge: the guidance says "You do not have to tell us when a charge is satisfied", and a charge marked fully satisfied stays on the record with that status. An entry showing "outstanding" is therefore a claim to check against the date of the last filing, not proof the loan is still live.
What each record can and cannot support
| Record | Can support | Cannot support |
|---|---|---|
| PSC entry | The first corporate owner or the individuals above 25%; the date they became a PSC (and, in the data feed, the date Companies House was notified); the ownership band | Exact stake, minority investors, owners above the first relevant entity, price |
| Charge entry | That a lender holds security over the company; the name of the person entitled (usually the lender); the creation date | The purpose of the loan, the size of the debt unless given, whether it funded a deal |
A new charge dated soon after an announced completion may be connected to the purchase. The entry does not say so, and linking the two is our inference, not a fact in the record.
Timing
A company must give updated PSC information to Companies House within 14 days of confirming a change, in most cases, according to the summary guidance. The main guidance adds that, if a person does not confirm their details, the register might say that the information cannot be confirmed. A completion announced in a press release can therefore sit ahead of the register; the guidance allows 14 days after the company has confirmation of the change, and up to a month for a person to respond to a company’s notice, so the lag can be longer than two weeks. In our Consolidator file on Affinia we used the date Companies House was notified of a PSC for one of the group’s entities as a dating point, and noted that no other source we read dated that completion.
How we use them
We use these records to test one statement at a time, and always with the date we looked. They do not source a deal announcement here. The PSC register also holds personal data. We cite the role and the company, not individuals’ details, and name a person only where a party or the register itself makes the role public.
Sources
- Department for Business and Trade, "Register of people with significant control", version 4, 19 November 2025: gov.uk
- Department for Business and Trade, "Summary guidance for companies: register of people with significant control (PSCs)", 19 November 2025: gov.uk
- Companies House, "Register a charge (mortgage) for a limited company", updated 1 February 2026: gov.uk
- The Limited Liability Partnerships (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2009, regulation 32: legislation.gov.uk
- Companies House, forms for limited liability partnerships (LL MR01, LL PSC01): gov.uk
- Companies House, "Your personal information on the Companies House register", updated 12 May 2026: gov.uk
- Companies House Public Data API, charge list resource: developer-specs.company-information.service.gov.uk
Related reading: Affinia: who owns it, what it has bought; Hedges Law and CKM3: Oak Legal’s first acquisition.