I suspect that example is long out-of-date and now incorrect. It is listing 2 PSCs, the first an individual and the second a company. It also looks like the documentation for the data returned is out of date also e.g. missing “kind” within the “item”. Better to look at the documentation for each PSC type as well.
So your questions:
- What’s the difference between the 2 addresses?
I’m not quite sure what you mean . As mentioned there are two PSCs, one an individual with an address, the other a company with a different address.
- In DoB … I assume day exist as well …
You’ll see in the documentation that there is a day field and it’s optional. For the vast majority of individuals you won’t find a day in date_of_birth in any of the Companies House datasets (officer appointments, disqualified officers, PSCs). It is supplied to Companies House but is not available to the public. (The only exceptions - and I’ve only ever seen two - are where a Company opts in and requests this information be held by Companies House on a public register).
- natures_of_control, [percentages]
Where there’s an amount or percentage, these are reported as >= 25 to < 50%, >= 50 to <75% or 75% and above. For a complete list of what can appear in natures_of_control see the “enum constants” lists.
Due to data issues listed below I wouldn’t say I’d rely on the PSC list for this. It may even be that you need a different (commercial?) solution which could provide this kind of information. For due diligence you’d probably want to examine the shares / shareholders as recorded in filings in the Filing History. Further details about that at the end of post.
To get an overview of the PSC data set the place to start is here:
http://forum.aws.chdev.org/t/psc-streaming-api/529
Note that:
There is - as yet - no streaming API.
The data quality can be highly variable:
- The data can be filed by members of the public. You’ll find “human error” across the CH datasets.
- There appears to be little if any validation or tidying of the data received. Companies House have essentially said “we are legally required to record what is sent in and make it available”.
- The PSC data set (and the rules which enacted it) are quite recent (couple of years). People are still getting used to this and they’re not all doing it (correctly).
Once you’re happy with the general idea, you can even see all the data at once - via the PSC snapshot, updated daily. That’s useful if you want to examine e.g. examples of each kind of PSC.
Browsing around on this forum should give you most other answers - if not, post again.
Shareholders
Companies House don’t have a special space in their (freely available) datasets for Shareholders that I’m aware of. They may appear - if they hold 25% or more of the shares - in the PSC list. (By my understanding they should appear there unless they’ve been granted an exemption in which case you’d see “super-secure” with no name or details … but these seem very rare). However I’ve seen enough examples which indicate that this doesn’t always happen not to rely on this without further checks. It seems that people are still misunderstanding the forms or rules.
You can find shareholders and the types of shares listed - for types of companies which have them and are required to list them which isn’t all - in the following filings in the filing history:
- Incorporation statement
- Annual return (if any)
- Confirmation statement (may or may not be there)
Bit of history: companies used to file a set of relevant info (including shareholders) every year on the Annual Return. That changed a year or so ago and they now file changes to information - if any - on a Confirmation Statement. The idea being that Companies House holds the current info (which you and I can get via API / Beta website), so companies only need to say if there’s been a change.
Where this makes things a little more difficult is if you want the current share / shareholder information. Someone may know a better way but it seems that you need to work backwards through the filing history, checking any “Confirmation Statement … with updates” to see if it mentions shareholdings until either you find what you’re looking for, you reach a time when an Annual Return was filed, or you hit the Incorporation statement.