Companies House does not publish a direct-dial phone number for general enquiries in the way most people expect. If you are an SME trying to reach them quickly — to query a filing deadline, correct a registered address, or confirm a company number — you will find the contact process more bureaucratic than a simple phone call.
This article explains how to actually reach Companies House, what contact options exist in 2026, and why SMEs waste time chasing admin when their marketing budget could be working harder.
Phone Number for Companies House: The Actual Contact Details
The phone number for Companies House is 0303 1234 500. This is the main contact line, operated by their Cardiff-based team, and it covers general enquiries about company filings, registered office changes, annual confirmation statements, and dissolution queries. The line is open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm.
It is worth knowing that this number does not connect you to a specific caseworker or department. You will be routed based on your query type, and wait times can be significant during peak filing periods — particularly around the end of the tax year. For anything that can be handled online through the Companies House WebFiling service, that is usually the faster route.
If you are trying to reach the Welsh Language Unit or need specialist support, Companies House also provides a dedicated fax line and postal address in Cardiff, though these are rarely the fastest options for time-sensitive matters.
Quick answer: The phone number for Companies House is 0303 1234 500. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm. For most filing queries, using the WebFiling portal or the online chat function at gov.uk/contact-companies-house is quicker than calling.
Why SMEs Search for the Phone Number for Companies House
In our nine years running a marketing agency, we saw a consistent pattern: business owners would spend a chunk of their week chasing administrative tasks — filing confirmations, checking company registration numbers, correcting directorship records — that pulled them away from anything commercially productive.
Searching for the phone number for Companies House is usually a sign that something has gone wrong or is about to. A supplier has asked for your company number. An investor wants to verify your registered details. A filing deadline is approaching and the online portal is not behaving. These are real, urgent operational problems.
The challenge is that Companies House is not set up for speed. It is a government registry, not a customer service operation. Understanding what you can and cannot resolve by phone saves you time before you pick it up. For anything relating to your company's public register entries — directors, PSC records, registered addresses — the GOV.UK guidance at gov.uk/contact-companies-house is worth checking first.
For SMEs, the broader lesson here is about where operational time actually goes. Admin queries like this tend to stack up and crowd out the work that grows the business — including keeping an eye on where the marketing budget is going.
What You Can and Cannot Resolve by Phone
Knowing the limits of a phone call saves you a wasted hour on hold. Companies House operates primarily as a document-filing registry, and many of its processes are deliberately designed to go through formal written or online channels rather than phone resolution.
| Query Type | Phone Resolvable | Recommended Channel |
|---|---|---|
| General filing deadline enquiry | Yes | Phone or WebFiling |
| Registered office change | No | WebFiling (AD01 form) |
| Director appointment/removal | No | WebFiling (AP01/TM01) |
| Annual confirmation statement | Partially | WebFiling preferred |
| Company name change | No | WebFiling (NM01 form) |
| Dissolution / strike-off query | Yes | Phone or DS01 form |
| Company search / number lookup | Yes | Phone or free web search |
| Late filing penalty appeal | Partially | Written appeal preferred |
The phone line is most useful for straightforward queries: understanding what a letter means, checking whether a document has been received and processed, or finding out why something has been rejected. For anything that requires a formal change to the register, you will need to go through the online filing route regardless of what you discuss on the call.
This connects to a broader point we used to make to clients: government admin channels are designed for compliance, not speed. Build your business operations around that reality rather than against it.
Finding Your Company Registration Number Without Calling
One of the most common reasons people search for the phone number for Companies House is simply to retrieve a company registration number — either their own or a supplier's. It is worth knowing that you do not need to call for this.
The Companies House free search tool at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk lets you look up any registered UK company by name, returning its registration number, registered address, filing history, and current director information within seconds. This is public data and does not require an account.
For SMEs who regularly need to verify suppliers or check their own details, bookmarking this tool is more useful than noting down the phone number. It is also the same data that banks, accountants, and larger businesses use when conducting due diligence on trading partners.
If you are frequently needing to verify business information as part of running supplier relationships or onboarding processes, that is a sign your back-office systems may need a cleaner workflow. The same logic applies to marketing operations — having the right systems in place means less firefighting. See how Overtime manages Google Ads for SMEs so you are not constantly firefighting there too.
Companies House Contact Options in 2026
Beyond the phone number for Companies House, there are several contact routes available depending on your query type.
The online contact form at GOV.UK is often the most reliable option for getting a written response you can reference later. Email is available for specific departments — the ACSP (Authorised Corporate Service Provider) team, for instance, has a dedicated inbox. For Welsh language queries, there is a separate bilingual contact route.
Postal addresses differ depending on where your company is registered. England and Wales companies file through Cardiff. Scottish companies use the Edinburgh office. Northern Ireland companies go through Belfast. If you are sending physical documents, make sure you are addressing them to the correct office, as misdirected post is a common and entirely avoidable cause of filing delays.
One operational detail that most generic guides miss: if you receive a formal Companies House letter with a reference number on it, quoting that reference when you call or write will significantly speed up the response. Without it, the team has to search by company name or number, which adds time.
What This Has to Do With Your Marketing Budget
This might seem an odd section in an article about the phone number for Companies House, but bear with us.
SMEs that spend significant time on administrative tasks — chasing government registries, managing filing deadlines, handling supplier verification queries — are also the businesses most likely to have Google Ads accounts running on autopilot. No one is watching the bids. Underperforming keywords are spending money. Budget is rolling into campaigns that stopped converting months ago.
We saw this repeatedly during our agency years. The owners most stretched on operational time were the ones whose ad accounts needed the most attention and were getting the least. The correlation was not a coincidence.
That is the gap Overtime is designed to fill. Rather than adding another task to your list, it acts as an AI agent that logs into your Google Ads account, adjusts bids based on performance, pauses keywords that are not converting, reallocates budget toward what is working, and sends you a plain-English summary of what it did and why. If you are curious about what that looks like in practice, you can explore Overtime's approach to Google Ads management here.
For SMEs who want to understand the broader cost picture before committing to anything, the guide to how much Google Ads actually costs is a useful starting point. And if you are weighing up whether an AI agent or a traditional agency makes more sense for your situation, the breakdown in best PPC agency or AI agent: what SMEs need covers the trade-offs honestly.
Related Compliance Topics SMEs Often Confuse
Companies House registration and HMRC registration are separate things. Your company registration number (CRN) is issued by Companies House when you incorporate. Your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) comes from HMRC and is used for tax purposes. These are different numbers, issued by different bodies, and queried through different channels.
Similarly, your VAT registration number — if you are VAT registered — comes from HMRC, not Companies House. If a supplier or customer is asking for your VAT number, the phone number for Companies House will not help you find it. That query goes to HMRC's VAT helpline at 0300 200 3700.
For SMEs who have recently incorporated or are in the process of setting up, understanding which body holds which information saves a significant amount of time. Companies House holds legal identity and structure data. HMRC holds tax registration data. The two systems do communicate — incorporation triggers an automatic HMRC notification — but they operate independently.
This distinction also matters if you are updating business details. Changing your registered address with Companies House does not automatically update your address with HMRC. You need to notify both separately. It is one of those operational details that catches people out. For more context on navigating Companies House as an SME, see also our related guide on calling Companies House: what SMEs actually need and the companion piece on company house numbers for SMEs.
If you are building out your business's online presence at the same time as handling this admin, the guide to how to advertise your business with Google Ads is worth reading alongside your compliance setup. Getting both the legal structure and the marketing foundation right at the start saves considerable rework later.
For SMEs ready to stop managing Google Ads manually, see Overtime's pricing here — there are no long-term contracts and no agency retainer markups.
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FAQ
What is the phone number for Companies House?
The phone number for Companies House is 0303 1234 500. Lines are open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 6pm. This number covers general enquiries about company filings, registrations, and dissolution queries.
How do I find my company registration number without calling?
You can use the free Companies House search tool at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk to look up any UK registered company by name. The search returns the registration number, registered address, and filing history instantly without needing to call.
What can I actually resolve by calling Companies House?
The phone line is useful for general queries — understanding a letter, checking whether a document has been received, or clarifying a filing deadline. It cannot be used to make changes to the register; those require formal online or written submissions through WebFiling.
Should I call Companies House or use the online portal?
For most SMEs, the WebFiling portal is faster and creates a paper trail. Calling is better for clarifying what you need to do before you do it, or for understanding why a document has been rejected. If you have a reference number from a Companies House letter, have it ready before you call.
Do I need to contact Companies House every year?
Yes. Every UK limited company must file an annual confirmation statement (previously called the annual return) to confirm its registered details are correct. This can be done online through WebFiling, and the filing fee applies regardless of whether anything has changed. Failure to file can result in the company being struck off the register.