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The words on the form, explained.
Thirteen terms you need in order to read a UK charge or control filing and know what actually happened. Most of the confusion in this category lives in the first four.
ChargeSecurity over a company’s assets
A lender’s security over some or all of what a company owns. Creating one triggers a filing duty, so the public record shows who lent against the business and when, even though nobody announced it.
MR01Registration of a charge
The Companies House form registering a newly created charge. It must reach the registrar within 21 days of creation. It names the company, the date and the person entitled to the charge. It does not reliably state how much was lent.
Satisfied chargeThe debt is discharged
A filing saying a registered charge has been discharged. It is the single most useful row for a lender and the most misread: it does not say why. A refinance, a sale of the secured asset and a partial release all look the same on the form.
Refinance patternSatisfied, then a new charge
A charge satisfied and a new charge registered against the same company within a short window. The borrowing moved to a different lender. By the time it is filed, the decision was made months earlier.
PSCPerson with significant control
Anyone holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or otherwise controlling the company. The register is public, and a change to it is the clearest public sign that a business has changed hands.
Control thresholds25%, 50% and 75%
The three statutory bands at which control must be declared: more than 25%, more than 50%, and 75% or more. A crossing is a fact on the register. It is not, on its own, a legal conclusion about the transaction.
Corporate PSCThe controller is not a person
Control often passes to another company or an overseas entity rather than to an individual. Treating a corporate PSC as a named human puts a company name where a callable person should be, so the register says which it is.
Controller exitA PSC ceases
A person or entity stops meeting the control conditions. On its own it is thin. Paired with a new controller inside twelve months, it is a change of ownership.
Officers registerThe directors, current by law
The public list of a company’s directors and secretaries, which the company is obliged to keep current. It is why the register can carry a name rather than a switchboard, and why those names do not decay like a bought contact list.
Shell and holding vehicleFiles like a business, is not one
A company with no trade that files charges and control changes exactly as a manufacturer does. In one measured week, 96 of 284 rows were not operating businesses. Removing them is most of the work.
SIC codeWhat the company says it does
The standard industrial classification a company reports on its confirmation statement. It is self-declared and sometimes stale, which is why it narrows the universe but never decides a row on its own.
OGLOpen Government Licence
The licence under which UK public sector information, including Companies House data, may be reused — commercially included — provided the source is attributed. It does not cover departmental logos, crests or the Royal Arms.
Companies HouseThe UK registrar
The executive agency that maintains the register of UK companies. Every limited company files with it, and almost everything filed is public.
105,036 active UK manufacturers. One register, every Monday.
Charges registered, charges satisfied and changes of control, in defence and advanced manufacturing. Read the last one before you decide anything. There is nothing to enter and nothing to book.
