uk-company-number 1.0.0

Validate, format, and identify UK Companies House company numbers

uk-company-number

Validate, format, and identify UK Companies House company numbers in Python.

Built by BORSCH.AI — UK Business Intelligence Platform covering 5.9M companies with AI-powered risk scores and 50M+ government signals.

Also available as an npm package for Node.js/TypeScript.

Installation

pip install uk-company-number

Quick Start

from uk_company_number import validate, parse, format_number

# Validate
validate("12345678")   # True
validate("SC123456")   # True
validate("XXXX")       # False

# Parse into structured info
info = parse("SC123456")
print(info.jurisdiction)       # "scotland"
print(info.jurisdiction_name)  # "Scotland"
print(info.type)               # "ltd"
print(info.type_name)          # "Private Limited Company"

# Format to canonical form
format_number("1234")      # "00001234"
format_number("sc123456")  # "SC123456"

API

parse(number: str) -> CompanyNumberInfo | None

Parse a company number into structured information. Returns None for invalid numbers.

info = parse("OC301234")
info.number           # "OC301234"
info.prefix           # "OC"
info.numeric_part     # "301234"
info.jurisdiction     # "england-wales"
info.jurisdiction_name  # "England & Wales"
info.type             # "llp"
info.type_name        # "Limited Liability Partnership"

validate(number: str) -> bool

Check if a string is a valid UK company number format.

validate("12345678")  # True
validate("SC123456")  # True
validate("00000000")  # False
validate("")          # False

format_number(number: str) -> str | None

Format a company number to its canonical (zero-padded, uppercase) form.

format_number("1234")      # "00001234"
format_number("sc123456")  # "SC123456"
format_number("invalid")   # None

get_jurisdiction(number: str) -> str | None

Get the jurisdiction for a company number.

get_jurisdiction("12345678")  # "england-wales"
get_jurisdiction("SC123456")  # "scotland"
get_jurisdiction("NI654321")  # "northern-ireland"

get_type(number: str) -> str | None

Get the company type for a company number.

get_type("12345678")  # "ltd"
get_type("OC301234")  # "llp"
get_type("LP123456")  # "lp"

get_prefix(number: str) -> str | None

Get the prefix from a company number.

get_prefix("SC123456")  # "SC"
get_prefix("12345678")  # ""

equals(a: str, b: str) -> bool

Check if two company numbers refer to the same company (handles different formatting).

equals("1234", "00001234")      # True
equals("sc123456", "SC123456")  # True
equals("1234", "5678")          # False

prefixes() -> list[dict]

Get all known prefixes and their descriptions.

for p in prefixes():
    print(f"{p['prefix']}: {p['type_name']} ({p['jurisdiction_name']})")

Supported Prefixes

Prefix	Type	Jurisdiction
(none)	Private Limited Company	England & Wales
SC	Private Limited Company	Scotland
NI	Private Limited Company	Northern Ireland
OC	Limited Liability Partnership	England & Wales
SO	Limited Liability Partnership	Scotland
NC	Limited Liability Partnership	Northern Ireland
LP	Limited Partnership	England & Wales
SL	Limited Partnership	Scotland
FC	Overseas Company	United Kingdom
SE	Societas Europaea	United Kingdom
CE	Community Interest Company	England & Wales
OE	Overseas Entity	United Kingdom
...	and 15 more

Data Types

@dataclass
class CompanyNumberInfo:
    number: str             # Canonical form, e.g. "SC123456"
    prefix: str             # Prefix, e.g. "SC"
    numeric_part: str       # Digits only, e.g. "123456"
    jurisdiction: str       # e.g. "scotland"
    jurisdiction_name: str  # e.g. "Scotland"
    type: str               # e.g. "ltd"
    type_name: str          # e.g. "Private Limited Company"

Data Source

Based on the official Companies House company number format specification. Full company data available at borsch.ai.

License

MIT