FAQ
Common questions
Short answers about the product, the index, public bodies only, the trial, and NHS records. Longer notes live on About, Methodology, Resources and the blog.
What Institrace is
What is Institrace?
Institrace is an index of UK public records. We only index public bodies. It collects papers those bodies already publish, converts image PDFs into searchable text, and attaches officers, companies, land titles and NHS organisation codes when a published identifier is already on the file. You can search that graph. You can ask it a question. Every answer is meant to point at a source that was already public.
Is this journalism, a database, or legal advice?
It is a database and a search layer. It is not a newsroom, not a regulator, and not advice. We do not interpret a join as a finding. Analysis stays with the reader. Solicitors, journalists and researchers use the index as a starting point, then open the original file.
What is a flag?
A flag is a structural pattern raised for review: more than one public-body role, or a commissioning seat beside a delivery seat. It is not an allegation, a finding, or a clearance. Status is pending, confirmed, or dismissed. The source documents stay attached.
Does Institrace replace World-Check or other screening files?
No. Institrace does not replace LSEG World-Check or Dow Jones. Those products hold PEP and sanctions screening files. Institrace holds the UK public-body and paper layer those files do not contain: committee papers, officers, land titles, and contracts, attached on official identifiers.
What do you mean by a join?
A published identifier is a number or code the file already carries. A company number on an officer appointment and on a land title. An NHS organisation code on a directory row and on a published accounts year. A charity number on a trustee list. We do not turn a similar name into a company number. A name in the text is labelled and is not counted as an attachment.
Do you interpret or allege?
No. We surface what is published. We do not allege misconduct, draw conclusions about named people, or treat a structural flag as a finding. A flag is a signal for human review. What you do with the record is your decision.
Do you have a code of ethics?
Yes. We do not interpret or allege. We do not invent a join from a name. We do not treat a flag as a finding. We do not have a standing external ethics board. An independent review is planned before the index is opened more widely.
What is in the index
What records do you hold?
Committee papers and related PDFs sit in Documents. Registers sit beside them, not inside them: Companies House officers, HM Land Registry corporate and overseas titles, Contracts Finder awards, the Charity Commission extract for England and Wales, and NHS organisation, spend, accounts and contract files. Crown Dependency and British Virgin Islands papers sit in the same document corpus as UK councils. Find Case Law judgments are planned and not held.
Holdings catalogueWhat sits in DocumentsLegal recordsSources
Why are NHS invoices and accounts not in Documents?
Documents is the paper corpus: agendas, minutes, packs and similar files from a website we track. NHSBSA invoice CSVs, Trust Accounts Consolidation workbooks and the NHSBSA contract register are structured extracts. Mixing them into Documents would make a payment look like a board paper. They stay on their own pages and join through an organisation code.
Which public bodies are listed on Sources?
The public catalogue lists bodies we intend to index: active sources with a working papers URL, and planned sources that are not yet live. NHS Organisation Data Service rows that are directory-only stay off this list until a papers URL is confirmed. You can filter by nation, by London, and by Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.
Why does a source page show 15 titles and a count of thousands?
The count is the number of papers in the index for that body. The public page shows a sample of the most recent titles so the catalogue can be crawled without opening the full corpus. Full-text search across those papers needs a signed-in seat.
Do you cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Yes for council and other public-body papers, where a source is listed. The NHS Organisation Data Service pack used here is England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland health bodies are a later pass. Land titles in the product are the England and Wales corporate and overseas registers.
Do you hold patient data, social care case files, or FOI inboxes?
No. We do not hold clinical records, named-patient files, social care casework, or anyone's email inbox. FOI material in the index is what a public body already published. Spend files drop payroll and named-person lines before they are stored.
Access
What is public without a login?
The homepage counts, the Sources catalogue, a sample of recent titles on each source page, Capabilities, Methodology, How records attach, About, this FAQ, Resources, the blog, Pricing, Terms, Privacy and Ethics. Those pages describe the product and the holdings. They are not the full index. Google can see those public pages. It cannot see people, Ask, paper full text, money, land, flags, or search results.
What needs a signed-in seat?
Full-text search, Ask, and the People, Money, Land and Flags indexes. Source pages behind the sample also need a signed-in seat if you want the whole title list and the text. Watchlists and the network map are not live.
How do I request access?
Self-serve trial signup is on a short pause while we connect card checkout. Request an invite or write to [email protected]. Existing seats can still sign in. The waitlist form is the access path. It is not the login.
Is there a price yet?
Yes. The public catalogue stays free. A paid seat unlocks the index. Ask and bulk export sit on an included credit pot, then a higher tier or overage. Researcher is one seat. Practice is three to ten seats with a VAT invoice. Newsroom and firm seats are quoted. We do not charge per paper view.
Can a journalist or governor cite Institrace?
Cite the original publisher and the original file. Institrace is how you found the record, not the record itself. If you mention the index, say that the join is a published identifier, not an Institrace finding.
Public bodies and trial
Do you only index public bodies?
Yes. Councils, NHS bodies, BIDs, housing associations, regulators, and other bodies with a public papers page. A supplier, developer, or care-home Ltd appears when a public file or a published identifier attaches it. We do not run a private-company directory.
Why is a private company missing?
Because no public file we hold has attached it yet. Paste the company number on Companies if you have one. A similar name on a paper is labelled as a name in the text. That is not enough to create a company row.
Why can Ask return zero?
The brief only compiles from records already in the index. A topic with no title or text hit on the named body is zero. A person we do not hold is zero. The miss card says what was searched. That is not a finding that the thing does not exist.
Is People every UK director?
No. People are officers and published directory members on tracked public bodies. A Companies House person number appears only when that identifier is already attached. We do not pour the national officers file into this list.
What does the trial include?
One Researcher seat. Fourteen days and a hard action cap, whichever ends first: 15 Asks and 2 exports. Browsing the index inside that window is open. A card is required. One trial per email, organisation, and card fingerprint. No shared seats on trial.
What can Google see?
The public catalogue: home, About, FAQ, methodology, how records attach, capabilities, resources, the blog, and body pages with titles and counts. People pages, Ask, paper full text, money, land, flags, registers, and search results stay out of the public index.
How the index is built
How do you match a person or a company?
With an identifier the file already carries: a company number, an ODS code, a charity number, a source we have already attached. We do not invent a Companies House number from a supplier name. Officer rows come from Companies House filings attached to a tracked body, not from a web search for a surname.
Why do some sources have no papers?
The body is in the catalogue as planned, or the papers URL is not yet confirmed, or the site blocks a crawler. A zero is a coverage gap, not a claim that the body publishes nothing. NHS directory rows without a papers URL are not listed as sources at all.
How often do you refresh?
Tracked websites are collected on a repeating schedule. Bulk registers refresh when a new official extract is loaded: land titles, Contracts Finder, the charity extract, ODS, NHSBSA invoices, TAC years, NHSBSA contract snapshots. Homepage counts are a snapshot, not a live ticker.
Who is behind Institrace?
Institrace is operated by Churchtown Media Ltd, company number 16960442, registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 5 Cambridge Avenue, Southport, PR9 9SA.
How do I ask for a source to be added?
Write to [email protected] with the body name and the public papers page. We will not collect from a site that is not already publishing the files.
NHS records
Which NHS bodies do you track?
The Organisation Data Service list for England is held as a directory: trusts, care trusts, integrated care boards, and other organisation kinds in that pack. Tracked document sources are trusts and ICBs with a confirmed board-papers page. We do not treat GP practices, dental contractors or pharmacies as document sources. Independent-sector and care-home rows can appear in the directory without being a source we collect papers from.
What is an ODS code?
An Organisation Data Service code is the national identifier for a health or care organisation in England. NHS England publishes the list under the Open Government Licence. Institrace uses that code as the join between the directory, invoices, TAC years, the NHSBSA contract register, and a tracked source. The display name is not the join.
Why are most ODS rows not sources?
A directory row is not a website. Most codes stay directory-only until a papers URL is confirmed. Stub rows are not activated and do not appear on the public Sources list. That keeps the catalogue honest.
How do you join a supplier to a board member?
Only when a company number is present in the file, or when another published identifier already links the rows. The NHSBSA invoice CSVs loaded here have no company-number column. Those payments are not turned into Companies House joins by name search. Board members join through officer filings on a tracked body, not through a guessed supplier name.
What do you skip in spend files?
Payroll lines and rows that name a person. Invalid rows. The rest is stored as published invoice data for the paying body in that file. NHSBSA monthly CSVs are payments by NHSBSA (ODS T1450), not a complete map of every English trust. Trust-level catalogues are a separate feed and are not claimed as complete.
Do you hold Scottish, Welsh or Northern Ireland health bodies?
Not as an ODS-equivalent directory. England is the current NHS pack. Public papers from a named health body outside England appear only if that body is a tracked source in the document index.
Legal records
Do you hold court judgments?
Not yet. We applied for bulk access under the Open Justice Licence on 19 August 2026. The homepage Legal block counts courts in that application, not judgments we hold. Nothing is loaded until The National Archives grants access.
Why is Find Case Law not under the Open Government Licence?
The National Archives publishes judgments under the Open Justice Licence. Computational analysis is allowed. Bulk access needs a grant. The application was sent on 19 August 2026. We will not load judgments until that grant is in force.
Why will judgments not sit in Documents?
Documents is the paper corpus: agendas, minutes, packs and similar files from a website we track. Judgments are a legal corpus. We will store the citation, the court, the date and the named parties, then link to Find Case Law. We will not reproduce the full text. Mixing that into Documents would make a judgment look like a board pack.
How will a judgment join to a company or a person?
Where a judgment names a registered company, the company number is the join. A party name alone is not treated as a person in the index.
Which courts are planned first?
The first set is five courts: Administrative Court, Technology and Construction Court, Employment Appeal Tribunal, General Regulatory Chamber, and Chancery Division. Other courts wait until we have agreement to add them.