Before you work with a supplier you should know it's a real, active company, that its VAT number is valid, that neither it nor its directors are on the UK Sanctions List, and whether it has published a modern slavery statement. The UK company checks section brings these four checks together and saves every result as evidence with your name and the date.
Where to find it
Open a supplier record and go to the UK company checks section. Each check has a link to the official government search, buttons to record the result, and (for sanctions and modern slavery) Check now.
The four checks
| Check | What it confirms | Results you can record | Automatic? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companies House | The company is active and its name and address match. Searches by registration number, or by legal name if there isn't one. | Active · Dissolved or in liquidation · Details don't match | Yes, with Look up (Professional plan and above), then checked every week. |
| VAT number | The supplier's VAT number is valid, using HMRC's checker on GOV.UK. If there's no VAT number yet it says "Ask the supplier for their VAT number first." | Valid · Not valid | No. Manual. |
| UK sanctions list | The supplier's legal name, and the people you list, aren't on the UK Sanctions List. | Clear · Potential match | Yes, with Check now (Professional plan and above). |
| Modern slavery statement | Whether the supplier has published a statement. Organisations that carry on business in the UK with total annual turnover (including subsidiaries) of £36m or more must publish one every year. | Statement found · Not required (turnover under £36m) · Required but not found | Yes, with Check now (Professional plan and above). |
How to record a result yourself
- Select the official search link next to the check. It opens the government website in a new tab.
- Look the supplier up and compare the details.
- Back in SupplierVault, select the result that matches what you found.
- SupplierVault shows "Recorded: result on date by name", adds it to the evidence on the intake form and logs it in the audit trail.
Recording a sanctions result also sets the supplier's risk "Screening result" (Clear or Potential match) and the screening date, which feeds the Risk assessed go-live gate. See Onboarding.
Companies House look-up
- In the Companies House check, select Look up. If the supplier has a company number, SupplierVault fetches that company. If not, it searches by name and asks "Which company is it?": select This one next to the right company.
- Check what comes back: the company status, registered office, date of incorporation, the last accounts, the officers, and any Watch out points, such as a status other than active, overdue accounts, an overdue confirmation statement or insolvency history.
- Select Record this and use the details. SupplierVault records the result as evidence, sets the company number, fills in the legal name and address if they're blank, and adds the directors to Also screen these people if that's empty. You'll see "Recorded. Directors added to sanctions screening, and weekly monitoring starts."
Open on Companies House takes you to the official record. If look-ups haven't been switched on for your organisation you'll see "Companies House look-ups aren't switched on yet. Use the Companies House link instead."
Weekly Companies House monitoring
Each live supplier (Active, Under review or Exiting) with a company number is re-checked once a week. SupplierVault looks for:
- a change of company status, for example to dissolved or in liquidation
- accounts or the confirmation statement becoming overdue
- new insolvency history
- a change of name or a move of registered office
- officers appointed or leaving
Each change is added to the audit trail, the supplier record shows Companies House changes spotted, and the supplier manager (or Procurement) gets a task "Check: Companies House: … (supplier)", due in 3 days.
Automatic sanctions screening
- In Also screen these people, list the supplier's directors and owners, separated by commas.
- Select Check now.
- SupplierVault checks the supplier's legal name and up to 10 listed people against the latest UK Sanctions List published by the government.
If there are no matches, the result is recorded as Clear with the evidence "Automatic screening against the UK Sanctions List (updated date): no matches for …". The line under the check shows the list date, how many entries it has and which names were checked.
If there are possible matches, you'll see "N possible match(es) on the UK Sanctions List" with each listed name and how close it is. Compare the name, country, date of birth, address and company number, then choose:
- None of these is our supplier: record clear, or
- Possible match: escalate to Legal. This records a Potential match and gives Legal a task "Legal review: possible sanctions match for …", due in 1 day.
Monthly re-screening
Every live supplier is screened again automatically once a month (if it was last screened 30 or more days ago, or never), checking its legal name and the people listed.
- If it's still clear, the result is updated and the audit trail notes "Monthly sanctions re-screen against the UK Sanctions List (updated date): no matches for …".
- If there's a new possible match, a review is opened on the supplier record and Legal gets a task.
- Names you've already reviewed and cleared aren't raised again. A supplier with a review still open waits until it's decided.
Where the sanctions result comes from
- The source is the official UK Sanctions List file published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Since 28 January 2026 it has been the only list of UK sanctions designations: OFSI's Consolidated List has closed. SupplierVault downloads it and keeps a copy for up to 12 hours, so you're never checking against a list more than half a day old.
- Common company words such as Ltd, PLC, Group, UK and Services are ignored so they don't cause false matches.
- Names are compared for similarity. A name scoring 82% or more counts as a possible match: 95% or more is shown as a Close match, below that as Similar.
Automatic modern slavery check
Select Check now on the modern slavery check. SupplierVault searches the government's Modern Slavery statement registry by company number and by name. A company number match counts as certain; name matches need to score at least 80%. Up to 5 matching statements are saved with links.
- If one is found, the result is Statement found with the reporting period. Group statements are noted.
- If none is found, the result is "No statement on the registry". That's expected for organisations with total turnover under £36m, which don't have to publish one. Adding a statement to the registry is voluntary for now, so a larger organisation may only publish it on its website: check there before you record "Required but not found".
Which plan includes it
Recording results yourself works on every plan. Check now for sanctions and modern slavery, the Companies House Look up, weekly Companies House monitoring and monthly sanctions re-screening are included from the Professional plan and in the free trial. On Essentials you'll see "Automatic sanctions and Modern Slavery checks are included from the Professional plan. Contact us to upgrade." See Plans and billing.
Good to know
- The VAT check is always manual: SupplierVault links you to HMRC's checker and records your result.
- Automatic checks and monitoring are available in the live service on Professional and above. You can still record a result you found yourself.
- The monthly re-screen runs on its own, and the "Start re-assessment" checklist still includes "Sanctions & entity re-screen". See Third-party risk.
- Companies House monitoring only covers suppliers with a company number, so record one for every UK company.
- In the public demo, Check now and Look up explain that automatic checks run in the full version.
Financial health indicators from Companies House
From the Professional plan, the Companies House look-up and the weekly monitoring also read the company's filing record, insolvency cases and registered charges, for suppliers with a company number. The result shows in UK company checks on the supplier as Financial health with a rating chip, the reasons and the date checked:
| Rating | When |
|---|---|
| Concern | There's an insolvency case, or the company isn't active (for example in liquidation, in administration or dissolved). |
| Watch | Accounts are overdue, the confirmation statement is overdue, there are 3 or more outstanding charges, or the company files dormant accounts while it's supplying you. |
| OK | None of the above. |
It also shows the company status, the date its last accounts were made up to, when the next accounts are due, and outstanding charges. It's refreshed every week with monitoring, and when you select Look up.
Suppliers rated Watch or Concern appear on the Dashboard's attention list and in the "Financial health indicators OK" part of Supplier hub health. On Essentials the section shows "Financial health indicators from Companies House are included from the Professional plan."