How it works.

Sources, method, checks and limits. Every fact on a Priorfile page links to the public record it came from.

Sources

Public records, joined up.

  • MOD spending over £25,000. Every monthly file the MOD publishes, loaded line by line. For the current sample, 97,030 payment lines over 36 months.
  • Companies House. Company records, persons with significant control, charges, officers and filings.
  • Contract awards and pipeline notices from the government's procurement services, as they are added.

Method

Money first, then owners, then reasons to call.

  1. Match each MOD supplier to its Companies House record by name and postcode. Uncertain matches are set aside, never guessed.
  2. Trace ownership to the ultimate owner through holding companies, and separate independent firms from those owned by groups, funds or overseas parents.
  3. Fire factual triggers: MOD money up 30% or more, changes of control, new holding companies, new or cleared charges, board changes.
  4. Check each company one by one for fit, and recompute every figure on every profile from the raw records before it is sent.

Limits

What it cannot see.

Subcontract work. MOD figures are direct payments only. Measured in September 2026, MOD payment data shows 57 of 1,801 established UK companies in the core defence industry codes, about 3%. Every MOD figure is a floor, and most of the supply base does not appear in it.

Small holdings. Shareholders below 25% are not on the public register.

Opinions. Priorfile reports what public records show. It makes no prediction about who will sell and gives no view on the National Security and Investment Act.