The PSC Register: How to Find Who Really Controls a UK Company

The People with Significant Control (PSC) register, maintained by Companies House since April 2016, is one of the UK's most powerful open-data tools for identifying who actually owns and controls a company. For anyone onboarding a new supplier, extending credit, or entering a joint venture, the PSC register reveals the individuals — not just the corporate entity — who ultimately stand behind a UK limited company. This guide explains what the PSC register contains, how to look it up, and how to use it as part of a practical B2B due diligence process.

What the PSC register is

The PSC register is a publicly searchable record of every individual (or relevant legal entity) who has significant control over a UK company. "Significant control" is defined by four tests: direct or indirect shareholding of more than 25%, direct or indirect voting rights of more than 25%, the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board, and the right to exercise — or actually exercising — significant influence or control over the company.

A person who meets one or more of these tests must be entered on the PSC register within 14 days of the company becoming aware that they qualify. The entry records the person's name, the date they became a PSC, their nationality, country of residence, and the nature of their control (which of the four tests they meet and in what proportion). If a PSC is itself a company, further information is required to identify the individuals behind it — you cannot hide behind an offshore holding structure.

Why the PSC register matters for B2B buyers

The PSC register answers a question that the company name alone cannot: who ultimately benefits from this business? When a supplier is a single-purpose subsidiary, a dormant shell, or a newly incorporated entity, the company name tells you very little. The PSC register tells you who is behind it. In practical terms this matters for several reasons:

• Credit risk. If the PSC of a large supplier is an individual with no other assets, your credit exposure is effectively personal. Knowing who the PSC is helps you assess whether the company has real substance behind it.
• Fraud detection. A PSC who is also the PSC of multiple dissolved companies, or who has been a director of companies struck off for non-compliance, is a risk signal worth investigating further.
• Sanctions and compliance. For regulated sectors, you are required to check whether a counterparty is connected to sanctioned individuals. The PSC register is the starting point.
• Conflict of interest. If your supplier's PSC is also a director of a competitor, a customer, or a company you have had disputes with, you may want to know before signing a long-term contract.

How to look up a PSC

On any Companies House mirror, the company profile page includes a "People" tab that lists all current PSCs, their roles and the nature of their control. The filing history will show when PSC information was last updated. The information is updated whenever the company files a confirmation statement or an event-driven filing (such as a change of PSC).

If the PSC is an individual, you can cross-reference their name against other companies they control — many registers allow you to search by director or PSC name to see every company they are associated with. This cross-reference is particularly revealing when a single individual controls a cluster of companies, some active, some dissolved, which can be a sign of serial incorporation and dissolution — a pattern associated with both fraud and aggressive tax planning.

What the absence of PSC information means

If a company has no PSC recorded, this is itself a red flag. Under the PSC regulations, companies are required to identify and register their PSCs; failure to do so is a criminal offence. A company with no PSC may genuinely not yet have identified anyone who meets the criteria (possible in very complex ownership chains, though unusual), or it may simply not have complied. Either way, if you are considering a supplier that has no PSC on record, you should ask for a clear explanation of the ownership structure before proceeding.

Using PSC data in supplier onboarding

A practical due diligence step is to add PSC verification to the onboarding checklist: look up the PSC register, record the name and the nature of control, and cross-reference the PSC against their other companies. If the PSC is a person with a clean record and a portfolio of solvent companies, the supplier is a lower risk. If the PSC is a person who has been associated with multiple dissolved companies, or if the PSC field is empty, ask the supplier to explain before you sign a contract.

For ongoing monitoring, an alert that tells you when a PSC changes — a director leaving or a new individual being registered — can signal a material change in the control of a supplier that predates any visible change in trading behaviour. Catching a change in ownership early gives you the opportunity to re-assess the relationship before a problem becomes a payment default.