403 responses for all api.company-information.service.gov.uk requests since 09:12 UTC

API Issues
1

Since 09:12 today (2025-11-06) we’ve had 100% of API requests to https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk endpoints result in 403 responses. We’ve confirmed this via two (previously working) API keys. Does the API have a known outage?

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2

We are having the same issue at approximately the same time

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3

We are also having the same issue – any updates or confirmation would be appreciated.

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4

Also getting 403 responses, via two new API keys generated today.

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5

We have the same issue!

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6

Morning all,

I am getting this looked at, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

SDN

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7

The issue is being caused by the API suddenly rejecting requests that don’t contain a User-Agent header.

By default our backend systems using Axios does not set the User-Agent header, by setting the header we were able to work around the issue:

Example:

200 OK:

curl --location 'https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk/search/companies?q=hello&restrictions=active-companies' \
--header 'Authorization: Basic *****' \
--header 'User-Agent: Example-header'

403 error:

curl --location 'https://api.company-information.service.gov.uk/search/companies?q=hello&restrictions=active-companies' \
--header 'Authorization: Basic *****'
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8

Is there a SLA / ETA you can provide?

9

We’re now seeing 100% of requests are successful since 10:10

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10

Thank you for the confirmation, we have regressed something which has allowed normal service to resume.

SDN

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11

Thanks. Can you please confirm whether this requirement of a User-Agent header (if indeed this was the culprit) is planned to come back in the future?

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