Garbage in, garbage out at Companies House

"Garbage in, garbage out" is an adage from the dawn of computing yet it is still true today. If you input a load of rubbish, don't be surprised when a load of rubbish comes out at the other end. It appears however that Companies House has failed to grasp this concept when it comes to the simple task of collecting address data.

RAVAS downloaded address data from Companies House just to perform a few a basic checks that will be familiar to every business in the UK operating a mailing list.

We found 1000 addresses that had no post code. We found examples of HMRCs Ruby House address with the wrong postcode. We found the country field filled with nonsense. Scotland, Wales, Cymru and England are not regarded as the correct form of country for the purpose of a postal address and whilst some might quibble at that CURAA+AO, DUMMY, GY1 SHL, N, PO33 2TG, SURREY, U, USSR, YUGOSLAVA and a blank space are definitely not acceptable as countries. But it gets worse than that. Some companies have no address displayed at all which isn't even permitted. Take for example the aptly named Clandestine Magazine Ltd.

I can hear the bells of Whitehall chime "Oh the Cost! Oh the Cost!" but to correct this problem is not only very simple, it is not expensive either. You shouldn't be able to enter nonsense into the address field because Royal Mail and other providers, offer address verification software that compares any address against every known mailing address in the UK forcing users to complete address fields correctly. The cost of ensuring an address is correct is only a few pence. Furthermore the software will clean existing data. Additionally Companies House could do what every bank in the country does and send out a letter asking the directors to validate their address online. If this was done we would not see bogus directors hi-jacking unconnected UK addresses.

And as for the cost, if that really is an issue, why not increase the company registration fee? £50 is ludicrously low given that in Germany, for example, it costs the equivalent of £2000 plus to register a Limited Company. The fees don't have to be exorbitant but surely they could be more than the cost of a cheap concert ticket or a round of drinks?

Unless some legislation prevents address verification there really is no excuse for this and it makes you wonder just what else is shoddily put together at Companies House.

Time to take out the garbage.