/group-structure

GET 1 request = 1 credit

Coverage Corporate relationships disclosed under the PSC regime, so from April 2016 onwards.

Walks the corporate control chain in both directions from one company: every corporate parent above it and every company it controls below it, resolved recursively to a depth of 10 with cycle protection. Built from corporate PSC records rather than name matching.

Input

Parameter	Description	Required
`key`	Your API key. May also be sent as a bearer token or X-API-Key header.	Required
`company_number`	Companies House company number, with or without the UK- prefix. E.g. 00000042 or UK-00000042.	Required
`direction`	ancestors for parents only, descendants for subsidiaries only, both for the full chain. Default both.	Optional
`max_depth`	Levels to traverse, 1 to 10. Default 10.	Optional

Example request

GET request

https://api.ukdatalayer.com/v1/group-structure?key=YOUR_KEY&company_number=00000041&direction=descendants

Output

Field	Type	Description
`control_ancestors[]`	object[]	Companies that control this company, with company_id, company_name and depth.
`control_descendants[]`	object[]	Companies this company controls, with company_id, company_name and depth.
`depth`	number	Number of hops from the queried company. 1 is a direct relationship.
`control_path`	string[]	The full chain of company IDs traversed to reach this node.
`parent_company_count`	number	Count of direct corporate parents.
`child_company_count`	number	Count of directly controlled companies.

Example response

200 OK · application/json

{
  "status": "success",
  "credits_used": 1,
  "data": {
    "company_number": "00000041",
    "control_descendants": [
      {
        "company_id": "UK-00000042",
        "company_name": "NORTHGATE ANALYTICS LTD",
        "natures_of_control": ["ownership-of-shares-75-to-100-percent"],
        "depth": 1,
        "control_path": ["UK-00000041", "UK-00000042"]
      },
      {
        "company_id": "UK-00000043",
        "company_name": "NORTHGATE ANALYTICS IRELAND LTD",
        "natures_of_control": ["ownership-of-shares-75-to-100-percent"],
        "depth": 2,
        "control_path": ["UK-00000041", "UK-00000042", "UK-00000043"]
      }
    ],
    "child_company_count": 1,
    "parent_company_count": 0
  }
}

Notes

A founder inserting their own holding company looks identical to a trade sale on the register. Where the parent’s own controller resolves to the same person, the relationship is typed as a holdco insertion rather than a change of ownership.