Filed financial statements for companies registered in England and Wales sit in the Companies House public register. The register is open. What it does not do automatically is answer the control question: who directs the financial position, what obligations are disclosed, and where the numbers stop matching the structure.
This page describes what the filed record contains, what it will not show, and what it costs to obtain a verified extract through VLO Law Firm.
What the record showsAnnual accounts filed at Companies House: balance sheet, profit and loss (where required), notes, auditor's report (where applicable). Source: Companies House public register · verified 2026-09-15 Filing obligationMost private limited companies must file accounts annually. Small and micro-entity companies file abbreviated or micro-entity accounts; full profit and loss is not always included. Source: Companies Act 2006, ss. 394–396 · verified 2026-09-15 Access conditionNo registration required to search. Individual document download is permitted under Open Government Licence v3.0 with attribution. Source: Companies House · verified 2026-09-15 What the record does not showManagement accounts, intra-group transfer pricing, off-balance-sheet arrangements, and any period for which accounts are overdue or have not yet been accepted. Source: Companies House filing status data · verified 2026-09-15This register is public and free of charge. What you are paying for is the removed path: registration, national identifier, language, electronic signature, declaration of legitimate interest.
What the filed financial statements contain
Companies House holds the statutory accounts submitted by the company's directors under the Companies Act 2006. The content varies by company size and filing category.
A full set of accounts — filed by larger private and all public companies — includes a balance sheet, profit and loss account, statement of cash flows, notes to the accounts, and the directors' report. An auditor's report is attached where the audit exemption does not apply.
Small companies may file a balance sheet and limited notes only. Micro-entities file a micro-entity balance sheet with minimal disclosure. In both cases the profit and loss account is not filed at Companies House and is therefore not in the public record.
The filing period covered by each set of accounts is stated on the document. The gap between the accounting reference date and the filing deadline is nine months for private companies and six months for public companies.
Source: Companies House · extracted 2026-09-15
The control angle: what the numbers establish
Filed accounts establish the financial position at the balance sheet date. For a buyer verifying control, the relevant questions are: what liabilities are disclosed, what related-party transactions appear in the notes, and whether the auditor has qualified the opinion.
Related-party disclosures in the notes identify transactions between the company and its directors, shareholders, or connected entities. These disclosures are required under FRS 102 and FRS 105 (for micro-entities, disclosure is minimal). The notes do not identify the ultimate beneficial owner; they identify the counterparty to the transaction as reported by the directors.
An audit qualification — adverse opinion, disclaimer of opinion, or emphasis of matter — is filed as part of the accounts and is therefore in the public record. Its presence is a material fact. Its absence does not confirm the accounts are accurate; it confirms the auditor did not qualify them.
Dormant company accounts contain a balance sheet only, often with a single line of share capital. They establish that the company filed as dormant; they do not establish that no economic activity occurred.
Source: Companies House · extracted 2026-09-15
Filing status and overdue accounts
Companies House records the filing status of each set of accounts: filed on time, filed late, or overdue. A company with overdue accounts has not met its statutory obligation. The register shows the deadline and whether it has passed.
Late filing attracts a civil penalty. The amount is set by the Registrar's scale and increases with the length of the delay. The penalty is a matter of public record on the company's filing history.
A company that has applied for a filing extension — for example, citing the impact of an overseas audit — may have an extended deadline. The extension, if granted, appears on the filing history. The underlying accounts are not filed until the extended deadline passes.
Source: Companies House · extracted 2026-09-15
What is included at each tier
| Tier | Price | What is included | Not included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | €440 | Most recent filed accounts (one financial year); filing status check; identification of filing category (full, small, micro, dormant); note on audit exemption status | Prior years; related-party note extraction; cross-reference to PSC register; overdue penalty history |
| Standard | €890 | Three consecutive financial years; filing status for each year; identification of audit qualifications; related-party transaction summary from notes; filing category for each year; gap analysis between periods | Management accounts; intra-group pricing; off-balance-sheet items not disclosed in notes; legal qualification of findings |
| Extended | €1,800 | Five financial years; full related-party note extraction; audit opinion history; cross-reference to confirmation statement and PSC register entries for the same periods; filing penalty history; written summary of material changes in financial position across the period | Items not filed at Companies House; legal advice; representation |
The limit of what the sources allow
The filed accounts at Companies House are the accounts the directors chose to file, within the category the company is entitled to use. They are not the management accounts. They are not the consolidated group accounts unless the company is itself the group parent and has filed consolidated accounts.
A small company with turnover below the small company threshold files a balance sheet and notes. The profit and loss account is not in the public record. The revenue figure does not appear. This is not a gap in the extract — it is the ceiling of what the source allows.
Related-party disclosures identify the counterparty as described by the directors. They do not identify the ultimate beneficial owner of that counterparty. The PSC register is a separate source and is covered under a separate report.
Accounts filed more than nine months after the accounting reference date are late. The public record shows they are late. It does not show why. The reason — dispute between directors, audit delay, overseas consolidation — is not in the public record.
Where accounts have been filed but subsequently amended or restated, the restated version replaces the original in the Companies House record. The original filing is not retained in the public-facing document list. The existence of a restatement may be noted in the current accounts but is not always disclosed.
The extract covers what was filed. The ceiling of what the sources allow is stated before payment.
Where the sources disagree
Filed accounts and confirmation statements are separate filings. The financial year covered by the accounts and the confirmation statement date do not always align. A shareholder listed on the confirmation statement may not appear as a related party in the accounts for the same period, and vice versa.
Where the accounts show a related-party loan to a director and the PSC register shows a different individual as the person with significant control, the discrepancy is a fact. The extract records both positions and identifies the period of each filing. No legal qualification is attached.
Source: Companies House · extracted 2026-09-15
Filing timeline and current availability
Companies House processes filed accounts and makes them available in the public register. The time between submission and availability in the document list is typically short for electronic filings. Paper filings take longer to appear.
The most recent accounts available are those filed up to the date of the extract. If the company's accounting reference date has passed and accounts are not yet filed, the filing status shows as overdue. The extract records the overdue status and the deadline date.
Historical accounts are available for as long as Companies House retains them. The retention period for filed documents is set by the Registrar. Older filings may be available as scanned images rather than structured data.
Source: Companies House · extracted 2026-09-15
FAQ
Does the extract include the profit and loss account for a small company? No. Small companies filing under the small companies regime are not required to file a profit and loss account at Companies House. The balance sheet and notes are filed; the profit and loss account is not in the public record. The extract covers what was filed.
What does an audit qualification in the filed accounts mean for a buyer? The extract identifies whether an audit qualification is present and its type: qualified opinion, adverse opinion, disclaimer of opinion, or emphasis of matter. The extract does not provide a legal interpretation of the qualification. The qualification is a fact in the public record.
Can the extract cover a company that has been dissolved? Companies House retains filed documents for dissolved companies. An extract can be ordered for a dissolved company. The filing history up to dissolution is available. Post-dissolution filings do not exist.
What if the company has not filed accounts for the most recent period? The extract records the filing status: overdue, with the deadline date. No accounts exist in the public record for that period. The extract states this explicitly.
Is the extract the same as a certified copy from Companies House? No. The extract is an analytical document prepared from filed records. It is not a certified copy issued by the Registrar. Where a certified copy is required for a specific legal purpose, that is a separate order from Companies House directly.
Sources
Companies House — https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk — extracted 2026-09-15
Companies Act 2006, Part 15 (Accounts and Reports) — https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/part/15 — verified 2026-09-15
Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102), Section 33 (Related Party Disclosures) — https://www.frc.org.uk/library/standards-codes-policy/accounting/uk-and-ireland-standards/ — verified 2026-09-15
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Disclaimer: This report is a factual compilation from official registers and public sources. It is provided for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and contains no legal qualification of the facts established. VLO Law Firm assumes no liability for actions taken or not taken based on this material. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@vlolawfirm.com.
Author: James Whitfield — Partner, UK & Common Law, VLO Law Firm
