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I don't think there's anything special about what DueDil are doing. Basic company information is public domain, and available to download in bulk [1] or via UR

by UVB-76 13y ago

I don't think there's anything special about what DueDil are doing. Basic company information is public domain, and available to download in bulk [1] or via URI [2] Companies House also offer a free app for iOS and Android [3] providing some additional info, e.g. details of directors and filing histories. If you delve into it, that is all served by a JSON API. Accounts data has recently been opened up for free [4], providing info on about 60% of companies (all those that file accounts electronically, from what I gather) but the data is in (i)XBRL format, and I don't know how amenable it is to statistical analysis. Documents are my biggest pain at the moment. I believe annual returns, etc. should be public domain, and I think it is wrong that Companies House have the authority to charge for access to them. [1] http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html [2] http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/miscellaneous/URI.shtml http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/miscellaneous/URI.sht... [3] http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/mobile-app/ http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/mobile-app/ [4] http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_accountsdata.html http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_accountsdata.html

shubb 13y ago
Thank's for the links. It was the annual returns that I was talking about. I was concerned that they might have sold the documents to Duedil cheap in a bulk deal that the public didn't have access to. However, looking into how Duedil got its dataset, it appears they buy the digitised data from Experian and friends, who get it from who knows where.
- UVB-76 13y ago
  The source of all the data will be Companies House. You can get (presumably unlimited) access to all annual returns for £17.5k pa [1] I can't imagine the government make enormous sums of money through the sale of such data, and I think there is a significant public interest in this kind of company data being freely available. [1] http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/toolsToHelp/ourPrices.shtml http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/toolsToHelp/ourPrices.shtml

by UVB-76 13y ago

shubb 13y ago

Thank's for the links. It was the annual returns that I was talking about. I was concerned that they might have sold the documents to Duedil cheap in a bulk deal that the public didn't have access to. However, looking into how Duedil got its dataset, it appears they buy the digitised data from Experian and friends, who get it from who knows where.

UVB-76 13y ago
The source of all the data will be Companies House. You can get (presumably unlimited) access to all annual returns for £17.5k pa [1] I can't imagine the government make enormous sums of money through the sale of such data, and I think there is a significant public interest in this kind of company data being freely available. [1] http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/toolsToHelp/ourPrices.shtml http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/toolsToHelp/ourPrices.shtml