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Data and API customers · Check

See what a record contains

A company, charity, school, public body, NHS or council record, field by field, with its source, retrieval date and licence.

Before I scope an integration I need to know what a record holds, where each field comes from and what licence it carries.

A data engineer at a screening provider
Looking at: United Kingdom (national) - examples use Kettering - Change
Or tryKettering TownManchester CouncilNorth West RegionScotland Nation
How it works

Step by step, on real recordsiEach example below is live from the public register, not a mock-up.

  1. 1

    See the record types

    The API serves six types of organisation: company, charity, school, public-body, nhs and council, each by the identifier its own register uses (company number, charity number, school URN and so on). The data licensing page counts them live, so the figures below are today's, not a quoted number.

    Every count and the query behind it

    Live countsEvery figure, and the query behind it

    Counted when this page was built, from the same database files the API and site read from.

    5,704,711Companies
    396,553Charities
    26,271Schools
    1,372Public bodies
    324NHS organisations
    382Councils

    Source: the register's own databases, queried live. Each count and its query is listed on the counts page.

  2. 2

    Read a record with its provenance

    Each API record carries its source, the date it was retrieved and its licence. This is the same provenance the website shows on the Sources tab of a record.

    Why it matters. Attribution to the original register is a condition of the underlying licences, so you need it in your output.

    API documentation

    A national example that shows long-serving seats: no charity listed for Kettering fits this step.

    Registered charity - Clifford Street, LondonThe Children's Investment Fund Foundation (UK)
    Official source
    Charity Commission register
    Register edition
    25th October 2026
    Licence
    Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
    Calculated here
    Official record from the Charity Commission register for England and Wales. Governance Register calculates the connections.
    Identity
    Records are treated as the same person only where our identity-matching rules support it. Confirmed relationships are supported by the approved identity-matching evidence and rules. Likely relationships are supported by sufficient evidence to suggest the records concern the same individual, but are not established as confirmed; they are shown with the label “Likely the same person”. How people are matched

    Source: Charity Commission register · updated 25th October 2026 · See the sources

  3. 3

    Read the board fields

    The board endpoint returns current and past board members with dates, where the source register carries them. The Charity Commission does not publish previous trustees, so for charities the past list is empty and the record says why.

    A national example that shows long-serving seats: no charity listed for Kettering fits this step.

    Registered charity - Tanner Street, LondonSocial Investment Business Foundation

    Social Investment Business Foundation is a registered charity (number 1117185) based in London, governed by 9 trustees and chaired by Sonali Siriwardena since 2019. Latest income £189m (2025).

    3 more people on this board.

    Source: Charity Commission register · updated 25th October 2026 · See the whole board

Try it

Look before you request a keyiOpen the licensing and API pages, or see a record as the website shows it.

Data licensingAPI documentationCounts and queries

What is open and what needs an account. The licensing, counts and API documentation pages are open to everyone. API use needs a key, requested from the data licensing page; limits are set per key. No writes are possible under any key.

Next for Data customersSee the network data→
Why you can rely on it

Sources, matching and privacy

Official sources

Board and officer records from the Charity Commission, OSCR, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Companies House and the Department for Education, with other public registers named on each record. Every fact shows its register and date.

How we handle data

Careful matching

Records are joined into one person only where our identity-matching rules support it. Confirmed relationships are supported by the approved evidence and rules. Likely relationships are shown with the label “Likely the same person”. Connections are calculated here and labelled as calculated.

Methodology

Private by default

Nobody is told you looked them up. Viewing, searching and saving are private. Near Me lists organisations only, never where people live, and nothing a person types becomes an official fact.

Privacy
Others who do this

The same job, in other hands

Board members, trustees and directorsCheck your record is right→Executive search and recruitersCheck a candidate before you put them forward→Due diligence, compliance and KYCWho really controls this company?→Chairs, clerks and governance leadsCheck a candidate trustee→Fundraisers, major gifts and business developmentResearch a prospect→Corporate partnerships and CSRCheck a partner→

8 more who check

Read the data licensing page and request a key

Searching organisations is open to anyone. A free account adds people results, routes, saving and changes. Free, no card or password.

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