Free tool · Checklist
Is this supplier in trouble? Where to look, free.
A lookup would need their name, and this site sends nothing anywhere. So this does the harder half: which signals matter for your exposure, where each is published free, and what it actually means when you find one.
The short answer
The signals worth checking depend on your exposure. Everything you need is published free: The Gazette carries insolvency and winding-up notices, and Companies House carries accounts filing dates, overdue filings, charges, gazette strike-off action and director changes. This page tells you which of those your situation warrants and where each one lives — you do the looking, so nobody learns which supplier you asked about.
Supplier failure is rarely a surprise to the people who were watching the filings. It is almost always a surprise to everyone else, because the filings are free, public and unread.
Answer six questions about your exposure. What you get back is the shortlist worth your twenty minutes, in the order a credit controller would work it.
Six questions about your exposure
Answer for one supplier. Do not type their name anywhere — you will not need to.
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Why this does not look them up for you
Two reasons, and the second is the harder one. A lookup means sending us the supplier's name, and no tool on this site sends anything anywhere — a search you would rather your supplier did not hear about is exactly the kind you should not route through a third party. And the best free packaging of the disqualified-directors data is licensed CC BY-NC, which a commercial site may not use. We would rather say that than ship it and hope.
The one habit that beats any tool
Set a calendar reminder for your three most critical suppliers' accounts due dates, taken from Companies House today. An overdue filing from a company that has always filed on time is the earliest cheap signal there is, and it costs nothing to watch.
Questions people actually ask
How do I check if a UK supplier is going bust?
Two free official sources cover almost all of it. The Gazette publishes statutory insolvency notices — winding-up petitions, administrations, liquidations, strike-off — by law and first. Companies House shows overdue accounts, compulsory strike-off action, the charges register and director changes. Neither charges, and neither needs an account.
What is the earliest warning that a supplier is in trouble?
Usually an overdue filing from a company that has always filed on time, or a new all-assets charge appearing on the register. Behavioural signals — asking for earlier payment, a factoring company suddenly collecting, a finance director leaving without replacement — often arrive before the filings and are free to notice.
Why does this tool not look the company up for me?
A lookup means sending us the supplier’s name, and no tool on this site sends anything anywhere — a search you would rather your supplier did not hear about is exactly the kind not to route through a third party. Separately, the best free packaging of disqualification data is licensed CC BY-NC, which a commercial site may not use.
What should I do if I find something?
Nothing dramatic on one signal. Confirm it against a second source, read your own contract for retention of title and prepayment terms, and start finding an alternative supplier before you need one. The last of those is the only step that changes the outcome rather than your information.
Sources
- The Gazette (thegazette.co.uk) — the UK’s official public record, carrying statutory insolvency notices. Free to search, no account. — official public record, primary re-checked every 6 months
- Companies House (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk) — filing history, accounts due dates, charges register, officers, and the register of disqualifications. Free to search, no account. — government register, primary re-checked every 6 months
- The mapping from exposure to signal, and the ordering, are Noxia’s own. Nothing here is credit advice, and no supplier name is typed, stored or transmitted by this page. — our opinion, labelled
Checked 8 September 2026. Next scheduled check 7 March 2027. Numbers that move — leaderboards, live indices — are re-checked every 30 days; annual datasets and rules in force every six months; dated research once a year. If something here has gone stale before we got to it, tell us and we will correct it and say what changed.
If several signals fired, the next question is the contract.
Retention of title, prepayment exposure and escrow are worth reading before an administrator is appointed rather than after. That is a lawyer’s job, not ours — but we will tell you that for free.
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