What is a SIC code?

Anyone who has purchased one of our UK Company Credit Reports will see that there’s a field dedicated to ‘BUSINESS ACTIVITY (SIC)’ in the ‘General Information’ section of the report. In this post we’ll explain exactly what this means.

The SIC code, or Standard Industrial Classification code, is a 5-digit code that outlines the industry that a company operates in. Here’s how it appears in our company credit reports:

Companies select their SIC code/s – they can have up to four – when forming. However, prior to June 30th 2016 a company did not select a code until it filed its first annual return (now known as confirmation statement), therefore if a company was formed before this date and has not yet filed a confirmation statement, the ‘BUSINESS ACTIVITY (SIC)’ field will be blank.

For a full list of codes and their descriptions, take a look here.

Interested in finding out what else our Company Credit Reports can tell you about a company? Visit the ‘What’s in our reports’ page.