---
title: "Official records: tribunal decisions, HMRC deliberate tax defaulters, minimum wage naming"
method: GET
path: "/company/{number}/adverse-records"
tags: ["Companies"]
---

# Official records: tribunal decisions, HMRC deliberate tax defaulters, minimum wage naming

`GET /company/{number}/adverse-records`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.companystack.co.uk`
- URL: `https://api.companystack.co.uk/company/{number}/adverse-records`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer
  - API key in header `X-Api-Key`

Records about a company from official public sources, each with its date, the publisher and a link to the publisher's page. These are records as their publishers state them, with their dates and links. They are not a credit rating, a score or advice, and CompanyStack adds no judgement to them.

- `tribunal_decisions`: Employment tribunal decisions (HM Courts & Tribunals Service), Open Government Licence v3.0. Decisions of the Employment Tribunals in England, Wales and Scotland published since February 2017, in which the company is named as a respondent. A decision is published whatever its outcome: claims that were dismissed, withdrawn or settled are listed as well as claims that succeeded. Read the decision for what was decided. Decisions are added every working day; checked daily.
- `tax_defaulters`: Current list of deliberate tax defaulters (HM Revenue & Customs), Open Government Licence v3.0. HMRC publishes a name for no more than 12 months. An entry is shown here only while it is on HMRC's current list, and is taken down when HMRC removes it. HMRC notes that a published person may have changed their behaviour, and that a business now at a published address may have no connection with the one listed. Updated quarterly by HMRC; checked daily.
- `minimum_wage`: National Minimum Wage naming scheme: employers named (UK Government (the department responsible for business and trade)), Open Government Licence v3.0. Employers the government named for underpaying the National Minimum Wage, from naming round 20 (February 2024) onwards. The figures are those published in the round: the arrears, the number of workers and the period they cover. A naming round is published two or three times a year; checked weekly.

**How a record is linked to a company.** None of these sources gives a company number. A record is shown for a company only when its published name is exactly the company's registered name (ignoring case, punctuation and LIMITED / LTD), one company only holds that name on the record's date, and a second fact agrees: the postcode or town the source publishes, or, where there is no address fact, the record's date falling within the company's life with no other company ever having held the name. A former name counts only for the period the company held it. Records that cannot be linked this way are not shown for any company; nothing is matched on similar names. Each record's `linked_by` says which facts agreed.

**People.** Only records about companies are held. Records about individuals and sole traders in these sources are not stored. A tribunal decision is described by its date, case number and the company named as respondent; the claimant's name is not given.

**Withdrawn records.** HMRC publishes a name for no more than 12 months. An entry is given here only while it is on HMRC's current list, and stops being given at the next daily check after HMRC removes it; if that check has not run for 10 days the group is marked `available: false`.

**Completeness.** Official sources listed here only. A company with nothing shown may still have records elsewhere: not included are the Health and Safety Executive's registers of convictions and notices; the Insolvency Service, the Information Commissioner, the Competition and Markets Authority, the Pensions Regulator and other regulators; court judgments other than Employment Tribunal decisions. A record is shown only where the source's own details link it to this company under the rule in docs/data-sources (the exact registered name, one company only, and a second fact that agrees); records that could not be linked that way are not shown for any company.

A group is left out while its source is switched off. Plans: every plan, API Free included.

## Path parameters

- `number` string, required

## Response `200`

The records linked to the company, by source. has_records: false when none is linked: that says nothing was found in the sources listed as at their dates, not that nothing exists

- object
  - `title` string, required
  - `company_number` string, required
  - `company_name` string, required
  - `has_records` boolean, required
  - `groups` object[], required: One group for each source that is switched on, in a fixed order, whether or not it has records
    - `id` 'tribunal_decisions' | 'tax_defaulters' | 'minimum_wage', required
    - `title` string, required
    - `publisher` string, required
    - `source_url` string, uri, required
    - `licence` string, required
    - `licence_url` string, uri
    - `attribution` string, required: The attribution to show with the records
    - `note` string, required: What a record in this source is, and is not. Show it with the records
    - `as_at` string, date-time, nullable, required: When CompanyStack last checked the source successfully
    - `available` boolean, required: false when the source's records cannot be shown now: it has not been loaded, or it withdraws records and has not been checked recently enough. false never means "none found"
    - `unavailable_reason` string
    - `total` integer, required: Records of this source linked to the company
    - `truncated` boolean, required: true when there are more than the 50 newest given
    - `records` object[], required
      - `date` string, date, nullable, required: The date the record carries: a decision's date, a naming round's publication date. For HMRC's list, the first day of the month the list is named for (date_precision is then "month")
      - `date_precision` 'day' | 'month', required
      - `description` string, required: One sentence built from the source's own fields. It states what the source says and adds no judgement
      - `publisher` string, required
      - `source_url` string, uri, required: The publisher's page for this record
      - `name_as_published` string, required: The company's name exactly as the source published it
      - `reference` string, nullable: The source's reference: a tribunal case number, a naming round
      - `linked_by` string, required: Why the record is shown for this company: the exact registered name, held by this company alone, and the second fact that agreed
      - `first_seen` string, date-time: When CompanyStack first read the record
      - `details` object: The source's other published fields. Tribunal decisions: case_numbers, country, jurisdictions, documents, published_on, other_respondents. Tax defaulters: list, trade, address_as_published, period_of_default, tax_on_which_penalties_are_based, penalties_charged (amounts as HMRC writes them). Minimum wage: round, arrears, workers, arrears_period_start, arrears_period_end, trading_name, postcode_district, local_authority, sector, spreadsheet_url
  - `summary` string, required: One sentence: where records were found, or the sources looked in with their dates
  - `completeness_note` string, required
  - `not_advice` string, required
  - `sources_not_included` string[], required: Official sources this answer does not cover
  - `notice` string

## Other responses

- `400`: Not a valid company number
- `401`: API key missing, malformed or revoked
- `403`: The key's plan does not include this endpoint (`code: plan_upgrade_required`, with `upgrade_url`), the key may not call it, or the key is beyond the plan's key limit after a downgrade (`code: key_limit_exceeded`: the newest keys are paused until keys are deleted or the plan upgraded)
- `404`: The company is not on the register copy held, or every source is switched off (code not_enabled)
- `429`: Per-minute or per-day limit reached (`code: rate_limited`, `window: minute|day`). Wait `Retry-After` seconds; when both windows are full the day is reported. A refused request does not count against either limit. A bulk lookup (`POST /company/bulk`) counts each company number in it as one request, so one that is more than you have left is refused whole, and the body adds `requested` and `fits`.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/companystack/apis/companystack-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/companystack/apis/companystack-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/companystack/apis/companystack-api/revisions/8f3234237d2d?raw)