UK SIC code lookup

They are the same codes. Companies House uses the UK Standard Industrial Classification, in its 2007 revision (SIC 2007): around 730 five-digit codes, grouped into 21 sections. Every company on the public record has said which of those codes describe what it does, and the codes it chose are shown on its Companies House record. The list on this page is that list, with a count of the active companies under each code.

So a Companies House SIC code search and a UK SIC code lookup are one job. Find the code here, open its page, and you have what the code means, how many companies hold it, and the codes that sit beside it.

The company does. It declares its codes on incorporation and can list up to four, which is how a business that does more than one thing describes itself. Codes are changed on the annual confirmation statement, and the change takes effect as soon as it is filed. There is no approval step, and no fee.

The part that matters most for anyone using this data: Companies House does not check the choice. Nobody verifies that a company filed under 62012 writes software. A SIC code is a claim a company made about itself, not a verified fact, and it is worth reading that way.

Nothing, directly. There is no penalty and no correction notice. The consequences turn up elsewhere: lenders and insurers read the code to price risk, some grants and schemes are scoped by it, and a wrong code can put a company in front of the wrong people or hide it from the right ones. It also means any list built from SIC codes carries some noise, which is why a code is a starting filter rather than the whole answer.

Because it can hold four. Every code page here shows two counts for that reason: how many companies list the code first, and how many list it in any of their four positions. The gap between those numbers tells you whether a code describes a business or just one of the things it does. A tight gap means a clean filter. A wide one means you should match on any position and narrow with something else.

Each one has its own guide. Each page shows what the code means. It shows real company counts from the Companies House register, the codes that sit near it, and how to build a prospect list from it. They are grouped the way the official list groups them, so a code sits inside its division and a division inside its section.