What a UK Business Website Must Show by Law

Four sources cover most of what a UK business website has to show: GOV.UK on what a limited company displays, the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 on what an online service provider makes available, the ICO on the privacy notice, and your own regulator if your field is regulated. Between them: a company number, a real address, contact details, a privacy notice and any sector extras. Most of it fits in a footer and two small pages.

I build websites, not legal advice. This post says what each source publishes, links to it, and stops. Take regulated advice on your own obligations.

What must a UK limited company show on its website?

GOV.UK's page on signs, stationery and promotional material sets out what a limited company must show on its business letters, order forms and websites. On a website that is four short lines:

• The company's registered number.
• Its registered office address.
• Where the company is registered (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland).
• The fact that it is a limited company, usually by spelling out the full name including Limited or Ltd.

Directors' names are optional, but GOV.UK says if you include them you must list all of them. The source is GOV.UK on signs, stationery and promotional material. Last verified: 7 September 2026. Read it yourself before relying on this, and take regulated advice on your own obligations.

What contact details do the e-commerce regulations require?

Regulation 6 of those regulations is headed general information to be provided by a person providing an information society service. It is written about that provider, not about companies, so it is not confined to the GOV.UK list above. The provider shall make the information available to the recipient of the service and any relevant enforcement authority, in a form and manner which is easily, directly and permanently accessible. Regulation 6 on legislation.gov.uk lists:

• The name of the service provider and the geographic address at which the provider is established.
• Details including an electronic mail address making it possible to contact the provider rapidly and communicate directly and effectively.
• Where the provider is registered in a trade or similar register available to the public, details of that register and the number.
• The particulars of the relevant supervisory authority, where the service is subject to authorisation.
• For a regulated profession, the professional body, the professional title and whether it was granted in the United Kingdom or, if not, the member State where it was granted, and the applicable professional rules.
• The VAT identification number, where the provider undertakes an activity subject to value added tax.

Regulation 6(2) adds that where a person providing the service refers to prices, those prices are to be indicated clearly and unambiguously and, in particular, are to indicate whether they are inclusive of tax and delivery costs. Geographic there means an actual address rather than a form, and permanently accessible is why these details belong in a footer. Last verified: 7 September 2026. Check the regulation before relying on it; your own obligations are a question for an adviser.

Does every business website need a privacy notice?

The ICO answers that with a yes. Its guidance for small and medium organisations says a company holding personal data, which it describes as generally any small business, charity or group with information about people such as names and email addresses, will need a privacy notice. The information to provide includes why you are processing the data, how long you will keep it and who you will share it with. On websites, the same page says yes if the site is mainly how your clients and customers find you.

Placement gets its own answer there. The ICO says to give people the notice when you first collect their details and to keep it available later, and its worked example puts the link immediately visible on the contact form page. That is a design decision as much as a legal one, and sits with your enquiry form and follow-up. The source is the ICO on cookies and privacy notices in detail. Last verified: 7 September 2026. The ICO flags that page as under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act, so the wording may change: read the ICO's own version rather than my summary, and take regulated advice on your own obligations.

Which sectors have extra rules from their regulator?

Regulated trades publish their expectations on the regulator's website. Dentistry is one example. The GDC's guidance on advertising says a dental website should include, among other things, the name and geographic address at which the dental service is provided, contact details including an email address and telephone number, details of the practice's complaints procedure, and the date the website was last updated. Where a dental professional is named, it asks for the qualification, the country it came from and that person's GDC registration number.

Other fields have other bodies. A solicitors' firm in England and Wales is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, a financial adviser by the Financial Conduct Authority, and a care provider in England by the Care Quality Commission. Each publishes its own guidance, not summarised here. The dental guidance is the GDC on advertising. Last verified: 7 September 2026. If you are regulated, read your regulator's current guidance instead of a summary; your own obligations are a question for an adviser.

Where on the site should these details live?

In the footer, and on two or three small pages. This is about where the items above sit, not a further set of rules.

• Footer: the full company name including Ltd, the registered number, the registered office address, and where the company is registered.
• Contact page: the geographic address, an email address, and a phone number if you take calls.
• Privacy notice page: linked from the footer and beside every form.
• The VAT identification number, where the activity is subject to VAT.
• Wherever you show prices, wording saying whether they include tax and delivery.
• Where the GDC guidance applies: registration details and a complaints route. Other regulators publish their own lists.

Selling online brings further rules this checklist does not reach, as cookies do. Last verified: 7 September 2026. The placement is mine; the items come from the sources linked above, so read those before relying on this, and take regulated advice on your own obligations.

None of it needs to crowd the top of the page. The first screen has a different job from the detail at the bottom, which is why a good small business homepage keeps the two apart.

How do you keep the details correct over time?

Set a date in the calendar, and re-check whenever something changes at the company. These details drift quietly: a registered office moves, a phone line is dropped, VAT registration arrives and the prices do not say so. Nothing breaks, so the site stays wrong until a person looks.

A yearly read-through of the footer, the contact page and the privacy notice covers most of it, but cannot tell you the rules themselves have moved, so open the source pages rather than a copy.

Frequently asked questions

Do sole traders have to show a company number?

A sole trader does not have one. The GOV.UK page used here is written about limited companies, while regulation 6 is written about anyone providing an information society service, not only companies. Read both against your own situation and take regulated advice. Last verified: 7 September 2026.

Is a contact form enough on its own?

Regulation 6 lists contact details including an email address that allows rapid and direct communication, so a form alone does not put the same information in front of a visitor. Last verified: 7 September 2026. Check the regulation before relying on this.

Is the address on the site the same as the registered office?

They are two different things in the sources. GOV.UK lists the registered office address, and regulation 6 asks for the geographic address at which the provider is established. Last verified: 7 September 2026. Read both sources, and which addresses you publish is a decision for you and your adviser.

Do I need a cookie banner as well?

Cookies come under a separate set of rules, and the ICO publishes its own cookies guidance for them. This checklist stops at company details, contact information and the privacy notice. Last verified: 7 September 2026. Read that guidance itself before relying on this.

Can my web designer keep these pages current?

Yes, and it is a small job. It is also one you can do without us: the client owns the site, the code and the accounts at the end of a build.

If you are planning a build or a rebuild, the footer, the contact page and the privacy notice are cheaper to design in than to retrofit later, and I would rather do them that way. Start at website builds. We quote per project by email after a short conversation.