A company director and a person with significant control are different roles

Read the record as two separate roles

On UK company records, directors are recorded in a different place from people with significant control, and the two sets of names often differ. A director entry answers a governance question: this person was recorded as holding a director position at this company at this point. A PSC entry answers a control question under the relevant conditions. Because the roles are recorded separately, one name appearing in one list tells you nothing about whether it appears in the other. [GOV.UK: company directors and significant control]

What a PSC entry does and does not say

The significant-control conditions include holding more than 25 percent of shares or voting rights, having the right to appoint or remove a majority of directors, or holding a form of relevant influence or control. These are role definitions, not earnings figures. An entry tells you that a condition was declared; it does not give an exact ownership percentage, a cash value, or a run-down of all the person's interests. If you need a percentage for your summary, the public record does not supply it, and guessing it would misrepresent the entry. [GOV.UK: company directors and significant control]

A three-column label before any summary use

Before you add either role to a public-profile summary, write each entry out in its own line with the company named. Keep the columns short: what the record states, what it cannot support, and what you will do next. This is a reader worksheet you build yourself, not a feature of any service. A hypothetical example: an entry reading “director at Example Trading Ltd, viewed 12 May” goes in the first column, “does not show pay, ownership share or other directorships” in the second, and “describe as a recorded director role at that company only” in the third.

Strip private detail; keep context

Company records can surface addresses and other identifiers that are unnecessary for a profile summary. Keep the exact company name and role wording, plus the date you viewed the record, because the context is what makes the label meaningful. Remove home addresses, dates of birth, identity numbers and similar personal details. Do not add a photo-search routine or try to match people across sources to strengthen the entry; the record you are permitted to see is the whole basis for the label.

• Keep: company name, role label as recorded, view date
• Remove: home address, birth date, identity or account numbers
• Avoid: matching the entry to social profiles or photos to fill gaps

When the record is missing, private or ambiguous

If the entry you expected is not in the public source, is inaccessible, or names a company that does not clearly match, write that exact limit down and stop. “No PSC entry found in the viewed record” and “company name does not match the summary subject” are complete observations; neither supports an inference that the person owns the company, earns from it or is related to anyone else. Do not seek private access or use a lookalike record in place of the missing one. Ambiguity is itself the finding. [GOV.UK: company directors and significant control]

Write the summary line that matches the evidence

Keep summary sentences at the level the record supports. A workable phrasing is: “Recorded as a director of [company] on the register entry viewed [date]; no significant-control entry was reviewed.” A second line can say: “Recorded as a PSC for [company] on [date] under a declared control condition; percentage not shown.” Both sentences stay close to the source. Neither adds pay, full ownership, family links or relationship status, because the public role entries do not carry that information.

• Use the role wording from the record, not a promotion of it
• Name the company in every line that cites a role
• Attach the view date so later checks can compare like with like

A couple more questions