Companies House

Planned change to our Software Filing Service (December 2008)

What are we doing? 

Over the past couple of years, we at Companies House have signalled our intention to change the technical solution of transferring data between Presenters and Companies House.

In June 2008, we introduced a new route which allows the submission of documents via an XML (WEB) Service interface. This allows software packages to send data directly to Companies House via the XML Gateway in an encrypted format.

Companies House is still operating its “Tag-based” Software Filing for existing customers. However, we are encouraging customers to convert to the XML service early, as the “Tag-based” service functionality will cease on 1st October 2009.  

The XML Gateway provides online access over the internet into Companies House databases, for customers to submit as well as to retrieve company information via their own applications or web pages.

Why are we doing it? 

Companies House wished to develop a more secure communication method and provide Software Filers with Web Services which by design, employs XML as a data format.  The XML Software Filing Service is a more efficient, safer and faster method of filing company data for both presenter and Companies House, than the existing paper-based or e-mail-based processes.

In addition to submitting data, presenters can also obtain a copy of the data currently held by Companies House.  This will be equivalent to the information held on the Annual Return and allows users to check the data for correctness, prior to submission.

Why now?

With the introduction of the Companies Act 2006, there will be a requirement to handle director’s private addresses in a secure and encoded manner from October 2009. The introduction of a system called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (secure) – HTTPS between client and web servers will satisfy this requirement.

Introducing the XML service at this time will allow users of the Software Filing service sufficient time to develop and make their systems and packages available to their clients.
XML is an e-GIF (e-Government Interoperability Framework) standard and recommended for use on all government Web based interfaces.  e-GIF promotes the adoption of XML as the primary standard for data integration and data management for all public sector systems.