Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities (SIC division 70)
Division 70 of the UK SIC 2007 list. It holds 4 codes, listed in full below with the number of active UK companies filed under each.
What sits in division 70
On paper this division mixes corporate head offices with management consultancy. In practice the consultancy code swamps everything. Code 70229, management consultancy other than financial management, is one of the most common classifications on the whole register. Interim managers, freelance project leads and boutique advisers all reach for it. Financial management consulting has its own code, 70221. Public relations and communications use 70210. Code 70100 marks genuine head office entities. Those coordinate group companies rather than sell to outside customers.
The consultancy crowd splits in two: personal service companies and real firms. Treat them differently. Accountants, IR35 specialists, contractor insurance providers and umbrella alternatives chase the new incorporations. A new 70229 registration very often means a contractor is starting an engagement. Boutique consultancies with staff buy other things, such as CRM, proposal software and subcontract talent. A one-person entity here often has a thin site or an unfinished one. Website quality is therefore a useful sorting clue, and the poor-website filter helps split the two groups.
How to read a division 70 code
A UK SIC code is five digits and division 70 is the first two of them. Everything filed under 70 shares those digits: all 4 codes below begin 70, then the third digit narrows to a group, the fourth to a class and the fifth to the subclass a company actually picks. Division 70 sits inside section M, professional, scientific and technical activities, which is the broadest tier of the classification. So a code is read left to right, from an industry down to a specific activity.
More on how division 70 codes are built
Companies choose their own codes at incorporation and can change them on any confirmation statement, and Companies House does not check the answer. A company may list up to four. That is worth knowing before you treat any division total as a headcount: the numbers here are what companies said about themselves, on the August 2026 register, and the largest single code in this division is 70229, other management consultancy activities (not financial).
Working division 70 as a list
Division 70 holds 4 codes and 336,446 active companies between them. One code carries most of it: 70229 accounts for 80 per cent on its own, and the top three take 95 per cent, with the rest spread across the remaining 1 code. Filtering by the whole division is therefore close to filtering by 70229 with a tail attached, so start from the code and widen only if the list runs dry.
More on working division 70
A caveat that matters more in some divisions than others: a company may register up to four SIC codes, and the figures below count every position, not just the first. A business filed under two codes in this division appears under both. Treat the totals as reach rather than a headcount, and if you need a clean list, filter to companies whose FIRST code sits in the division. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
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Division 70 questions
Why do so many contractors register under SIC code 70229?
It is broad enough to cover almost any professional advisory work. That made it the default for interim managers and consultants setting up personal service companies. Nobody vets it. The code is simply what the director declared at incorporation or on a confirmation statement. That breadth is also why a list built on 70229 alone mixes real consultancies with individual contractors from every industry.
What is SIC code 70100 for, and should a trading business use it?
Code 70100 describes head office activities. That means overseeing other companies in a group, plus central strategy and administration. It suits holding-style entities that direct subsidiaries rather than sell to customers. A business trading in its own right should use a code describing what it actually does. You can change codes at any time on the confirmation statement (CS01), and hold up to 4.
Find companies across division 70
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