Simon confirms sole traders by hand and letters use the name a business uses itself

In plain English

My leads agent keeps a business on file only once Companies House (the government’s register of companies) or the business’s own website confirms who it is (decision 0018). Sole traders and partnerships aren’t on Companies House, so until now none of them could be kept. Now Simon reads a business’s website and types its name and town into a short command, with the page’s address.

Simon also wanted two professional registers to confirm a business. When one of my agents read their terms, one forbids it and the other can’t find a business by its name and town. So neither does.

Letters and emails now use the name a business gives on its own website. Companies House writes most names in capitals, so without that name a draft keeps the capitals and tells Simon to check.

Context

Decision 0018 says a record’s name, town and company number come from Companies House or the business’s own website, never from Google. Google gives my agent only a list of places to look up. The confirm step looks each one up on Companies House and keeps it only when exactly one company matches its name and town. That left three gaps, which Simon agreed to fill on 14 November 2026:

1. Sole traders and partnerships. Companies House doesn’t list them, so every one was marked “not confirmed”. My records store could already hold a business confirmed from its own website, but nothing let Simon do it.
2. Clinics. Osteopaths and physiotherapists are often sole traders. Each profession has a register: the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) keeps one for osteopaths and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) keeps one for physiotherapists. My business check already searches the GOsC register for a practice’s contact details.
3. Names in capitals. Companies House writes “ZEBRA ROOFING LIMITED”, so a letter opened “Dear ZEBRA ROOFING LIMITED”.

The registers’ terms. Before building the second part, one of my agents read what each register says about using what it shows, on 14 November 2026.

• The GOsC’s data protection and privacy page (last updated 26 March 2026) says, under “The Register of Osteopaths”: “Under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018, the reproduction and use of names and addresses on this website for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.” Keeping a practice’s name and town to write to it about Method7’s work is a commercial purpose.
• The HCPC has no separate terms of use. Its policies page says the terms for its website are in its privacy notice (last reviewed 5 August 2026). That lists what the register shows for each person: name, registration number, location, status and period of registration. It then says: “This information may be used by third parties in the provision of their services to validate persons employed as registrants of the HCPC.” That allows checking a person someone employs. It says nothing about keeping a business’s details. The register search also finds people, not businesses: it asks for a surname or registration number and a profession, through a form that needs a security code from the page. It can’t be searched by a business’s name and town at all.

Options

For sole traders:

1. Leave them out. No record unless Companies House confirms it.
2. Let Simon confirm one by hand from its own website. Simon reads the website. My agent takes what Simon types and never reads the site itself.

For the registers:

1. Confirm from the GOsC and HCPC registers on one exact match of name and town, as Companies House does now.
2. Don’t use them to confirm a business.

For names:

1. Change the capitals, so “ZEBRA ROOFING LIMITED” becomes “Zebra Roofing Limited”. That is a guess. Some guesses are wrong: “SP ROOFING LTD” would become “Sp Roofing Ltd”.
2. Keep the name a business uses on its own website, as Simon types it. Use it in letters and emails. Without one, keep Companies House’s name exactly and tell Simon.

Decision

Simon chose option 2 for sole traders and option 2 for names on 14 November 2026. Simon chose option 1 for the registers. Before building it, one of my agents read their terms, as the task asked. One forbids it and the other can’t find a business, so that part was not built: neither register confirms a business. One of my agents built the rest:

• Confirming by hand. Simon gives the place ID, the name and town as the website gives them and the page’s address. The record’s source is the business’s own website, with that address and the day. The business check then runs on what Simon typed, as for any other record. A place ID already confirmed, or linked to a record, is refused. So is an address that isn’t a web page’s (one starting http:// or https://).
• The business’s own name. Simon can add the name a business uses on its own website to any record, with the page’s address as its source. Drafts greet and address the business by that name. The name on file from Companies House stays as it is, because it is how the record is matched.
• Capitals left alone. Without that name, a draft uses Companies House’s name exactly as it is written. If it is all in capitals, the draft carries a note for Simon: “This name is as Companies House writes it. Check how the business writes its own name before sending.” No name’s capitals are ever changed by guesswork.

Consequences

• Sole traders and partnerships can now go on file, but only one at a time, by Simon. The confirm step still marks them “not confirmed” first.
• Confirming a business by hand takes Simon’s time: reading the website, then typing what it says. A typing mistake goes into the record.
• Clinics that are sole traders get no help from the registers. They go on file only when Simon confirms them from their own website.
• Every letter to a company whose name Companies House writes in capitals waits for Simon to check the name, unless Simon has already added the business’s own name.
• The GOsC line affects more than this choice. My business check already reads the GOsC register for a practice’s principal (the osteopath who runs it), its address and its contact details. It stores those with the check and can name the principal in a letter. That is also using names and addresses from the register for a commercial purpose. Simon has not decided what to do about it yet. Nothing in this change alters it.
• No lawyer has looked at either register’s terms.