I’ve found a scenario where the registration_number within the response for a corporate persons of significant control is missing the leading zero. It doesn’t appear to happen in every case but is causing issues when we try to search the returned company as it fails without the leading zero.
I don’t know why in some cases it returns and others it doesn’t (possibly a filing issue with the source documentation) but has anyone encountered this before?
If so, were you able to create a rule that could account for an incomplete response and add the leading 0(s) back in before the search?
Example (numbers aren’t real):
Search on 01234567
Establish that this company has a corporate PSC with company number 09876543
Response lists this as 9876543
Automatically use the exact response value to try to put 9876543 back through the search but it fails
I’m not part of Companies House but as far as I’m aware most things in the identification member (including registration number) are:
a) optional
b) supplied by the person completing the filing.
So it’s “largely unchecked human input, by anyone” - so “all bets are off”.
Unchecked? As far as I’m aware - Companies House as a “registrar” has not only never done (much? any?) validation but is legally required to record what they submit! And - not that I think this may make a difference here - but this still could be on paper - e.g. see the PSC02 Notice of RLE form here).
So … I think it’s “over to you” (or us in general).
We implement a system where we try to parse some of these fields where given, essentially as “just text”, not relying on them to be present, but where we can match things e.g. country registered (also “just text” and I think I’ve seen nonsense here also…) trying to apply relevant logic (e.g. if state is identified as UK, see if the company number parses to one, allowing for missing leading zeros etc.)
You could take that further e.g. try to then confirm that company exists in any register you can search (like Companies House) of course.