Companies House makes the move to open data

July 2014 saw Companies House openly commit themselves to offering all of their digital data free of charge by the end of June 2015. The idea came after some serious self-evaluation from the government agency following a strategy review a few years ago. The move arrives soon after the agencyโ€™s significant shift to โ€œThe Companies House Serviceโ€, a new unified approach to the way in which Companies House operates.

The Companies House Service saw its beta launch towards the end of 2014, replacing the separate filing and search services with a new RESTful API. This updated interface allows both Companies House and third parties to straightforwardly create filing and searching facilities. To support this change on the technical side, a NoSQL MongoDB infrastructure is also replacing the relational Oracle database.

โ€œIt has been very well receivedโ€, says Companies House chief executive Tim Moss, of the Companies House Service system. โ€œWeโ€™re now in the process of moving to full public access, and then also making sure all the information is released free through that service.โ€

โ€œUltimately the purpose of the registry is to provide informationโ€, Moss continues. โ€œThe registration piece is just the input bit, but actually how do we support the economy? We support the economy by providing data and allowing people to make decisions, compare companies theyโ€™re going to do business with or notโ€.

With regard to achieving the projected timeframe for offering all digital data free of charge, Moss remains confident. โ€œWeโ€™re on track to deliver that and we think itโ€™s a game changer for the UK business information market. Itโ€™s a really important thing for Companies House and a big shift for us as an organisationโ€.

Upwards of 80% of the data Companies House currently receives is now filed digitally and Moss asserts that their output is around 99.9% digital. โ€œWeโ€™re well on our wayโ€ he states. โ€œOur aim is to push on the input side to get up to the 90s and beyondโ€.

Moss has also made it clear that the digital agenda remains the number one focus for Companies House. The overarching strategy for the agency is to continue evolving until it can truly be considered a register that is completely digital.

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