As organisations, why are UK government departments not registered on Companies House or counterparts (like the Charity Commission)?

Question

When dealing with a company, Companies House provides a wealth of information about them. As a software developer, most important in this regard are things like their company number, which serves as the best immutable identifier unless they have an LEI. Additionally, using this company as an example (which I have authorisation to do) I can see the registered address and its nature of business.

This means that acquiring useful information about programmatically about companies in the UK in a consistent manner is a relatively trivial endeavour.

However, this does not apply to UK Government departments, ministries, and offices. I once asked the Home Office via an FOIR whether it or its subsidiaries had been assigned an LEI, but as this response demonstrates, they were not aware of any, if they have been. Consequently, any digital system interacting with these government entities must instead rely upon manual oversight to ensure that the data held for these is correct.

As an example, HM Armed Forces may be referred to as their entire name – His Majesty's Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, because the name changes based upon who is regent, yet the organisation referenced remains the same. I know not of any other organisation which consistently changes its name based upon certain societal triggers, which means I need special logic for solely this organisation's name. This wouldn't be a problem if I could reference it using a company number or LEI.

As this comment on an FOIR request of a similar nature, conducted by someone suffering from the delusion that they are a sovereign citizen demonstrates, it is explained that government entities like councils sometimes incorporate themselves or subsidiaries as companies for "administrative purposes", although this appears to be much the exception rather than the norm.

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Summarily, why is this so – why are UK Government departments, which appear to be organisations like any other, not incorporated as charities or companies with either commission? I can't see any benefit to it.

Answer 1

Because they are not companies, they’re corporations

All companies are corporations, but not all corporations are companies. Companies are corporations created under the relevant law and registered with Companies House in the UK. Government organisations are other types of corporations.

In some cases, they may just be a company with the government as its sole shareholder. More often, they are corporations created by legislation (statutory corporations). Finally, government departments themselves are corporations sole embodied in the minister.

See:

• What's the difference between a body corporate and a corporation sole?
• What is the difference between a "Natural" person and an "Artificial" / "Legal" person?

Answer 2

The simple answer is that the law determines whether organisations of different kinds need to be registered with some kind of registrar. If a type of organisation is not covered by any legislation, then it doesn't need to be registered.

The Wikipedia page on Companies House provides a useful list of the kinds of entities for which it is the registrar, which includes various types of companies, as well as limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships.

The Financial Conduct Authority is the registrar for many types of organisations which are not companies, with the Charity Commission providing this service for charities.

That leaves at least 3 entities for which there is no registrar:

• Government departments and agencies, as OP notes
• Partnerships (apart from LPs and LLPs, as noted above)
• People!

Dale M's answer clarifies what types of organisation government departments and agencies are; but regardless of what they are, my speculation as to why these organisations are not required to be registered anywhere would be:

• There are relatively few government departments, though the number of agencies and public bodies is somewhat larger.
• The full list is readily available on the government's website.
• Departments in particular tend to be renamed, reorganised, created and abolished at the government's whim.
• Government departments are already accountable to Parliament and the public, so there may be no benefit to also requiring them to be registered as companies.

(Note that Companies House is a government agency; so if such bodies were required to be registered, it would have to register itself with itself!)