---
name: company-check
description: |
  Run a due diligence check on a UK company. Pulls corporate status, filing
  compliance, directors, beneficial owners, insolvency notices, and VAT
  validation from official registers. Use when someone asks "check this
  company", "is this company legit", "who owns X Ltd", "due diligence on X".
  Requires the UK Due Diligence MCP server to be connected.
allowed-tools:
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__company_search
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__company_profile
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__company_officers
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__company_psc
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__gazette_insolvency
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__vat_validate
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__charity_search
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__charity_profile
  - mcp__claude_ai_uk-due-diligence__land_title_search
---

# Company Check

Run a due diligence check on a UK company using official government registers. Find out if a company is real, healthy, compliant, and who actually controls it.

## Thinking Like a Professional

The person asking is about to do business with this company. They might be a landlord checking a management company, a contractor vetting a client, a solicitor doing pre-transaction checks, or an investor assessing a target. They want to know:

1. **Is this company real and active?** Incorporation date, registered address, status. A company dissolved last year or in liquidation is a very different conversation.
2. **Is it well run?** Are accounts filed on time? Is the confirmation statement current? Late filings signal either negligence or distress.
3. **Who controls it?** Directors and persons with significant control (PSC) are legally mandated disclosures. A company with no PSC registered is either non-compliant or structured to obscure ownership.
4. **Are there red flags?** Gazette insolvency notices, winding-up petitions, charges registered against assets. These are public record for a reason.

Everything you present should help the user decide whether to proceed, investigate further, or walk away. A clean profile with current filings and identifiable owners is boring and good. That's the point.

## What the Registers Tell You

**Companies House** is the baseline. Company status, SIC codes, filing history, registered office, directors, and PSCs. If a company isn't on Companies House, it isn't a UK limited company.

**The Gazette** publishes statutory notices — insolvency, winding-up, striking-off. A gazette notice is a legal event, not a rumour. If there's a winding-up petition, that's a fact.

**HMRC VAT** validation confirms whether a VAT number is genuine. Useful for verifying invoices and supply chain checks.

**Land Registry** shows corporate property holdings. Relevant for freeholders, property management companies, or any entity claiming to own land.

**Charity Commission** covers registered charities. Relevant when the entity is a charity or claims charitable status.

## What You Don't Have

- Credit scores or payment history (Dun & Bradstreet, Experian)
- Court judgments (County Court Judgments require a paid search)
- Beneficial ownership beyond what's declared to Companies House (PSC register is self-reported)
- Trading history or revenue figures (unless filed in accounts)
- Personal credit of directors

Be clear about these gaps. The user needs to know what else to check.

## How to Work

**Gather:** Start with `company_search` if you have a name, or `company_profile` if you have a company number. Pull the profile first — it gives you status, filing compliance, and SIC codes. Then pull officers and PSCs. If anything looks concerning, check the Gazette for insolvency notices. If a VAT number was provided, validate it.

**Assess:** Look for patterns, not just data points. Late filings alone might be sloppy admin. Late filings plus recently resigned directors plus a gazette notice is a different story. A company incorporated last month with a registered address at a mail forwarding service and no PSC is worth flagging even if technically compliant.

**Present:** Lead with the headline — is this company in good standing or not? Then the detail. Don't bury red flags in the middle of a data dump.

## When Things Go Wrong

- **Company not found:** Try variations of the name. Ltd vs Limited, ampersand vs "and", check for parent/subsidiary structures.
- **No PSC registered:** This is itself a flag. All active companies should have at least one PSC or a relevant legal entity registered. Note it.
- **Dissolved company:** Still useful — tell the user when it was dissolved and whether there were gazette notices before dissolution.
- **VAT number invalid:** Could be a typo or could be fraud. Ask the user to verify the number.

## Good vs Bad Output

**Good:** Leads with a clear assessment. Groups red flags together. Explains what the findings mean in context. States what wasn't checked.

**Bad:** Lists every Companies House field with no interpretation. Buries insolvency notices at the bottom. Doesn't explain why late filings matter. Presents a dissolved company the same way as an active one.

## Formatting

British spelling. Company numbers as 8-digit zero-padded (e.g. 01234567). Dates as DD Month YYYY. SIC codes with descriptions. Directors listed with appointment date. Always state which registers were checked and which weren't.