Hi & thanks for reading.

Where would companies find their Standard Industrial Classisifation (SIC)codes? Is it writen on any 'official' (e.g. tax) paper-work?

I am preparing a questionnaire about companies' resource use (environmental stuff) and this information would be useful, but in previous work I found that generally companies (especially small businesses) do not know what a SIC codes are.

FYI, a SIC code is the code the Office for National Statistics uses to classify businesss in the UK (and is linked to a European Union wide classification system).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

The only context that I'm familiar with SIC codes is through the EA as a requirement of company registration as a hazardous waste producer. The EA provides a spreadsheet of SIC codes in the waste section of their website. I've not seen it in any other context.

midgebait – thanks.

The ONS also use them to summarise industrial sector performance, e.g. number and size of companies (or enterprises as they call them) and turnover.

However, I do not know how they collect the orinigal info.

I used to deal with these quite a lot, and it can be a right headache trying to figure out what SIC code a company fits best under.

Some, but by no means all companies list a SIC code in the information displayed through the Companies House website.

Some of them are even right!

I also used to deal with these. We never had any form of central register for them. Every company we dealt with had an SIC that we allocated them, using our judgement. We didn't tell the company or anyone else what we'd chosen. Presumably some companies could have different codes with different contacts. Always seemed to be a very loose system, but the data on the SIC went somewhere central, no doubt to appear in official statistics, but we were never queried about our choice of SIC.

SIC codes are normally assigned by Accountants when registering a new Limited Company at Companies House; they usually do this to cover all current and any future possible trading activity – also caompanies sometimes change what they do but don't remove the old SIC's, just add new ones (hence why some look out of place).

I'd try Companies House and/or Accountancy Firms as a starter for 10.

Good luck with it all!

they usually do this to cover all current and any future possible trading activity

That would explain why the ones I found on Companies House were often headline codes rather than more specefic codes. (eg 640000 rather than 641234)

Depending on how many respondents you're expecting, you might be better off asking for a business description and assigning an SIC yourself.

And it may be that your statistics will be more easily interpreted if your groups are at a higher level anyway, so you'll be doing some manual work whatever you ask for.

Cool! Thanks for all your help!

The Speedy Snail, what do you do? I work for a waste company and have the entire list of EWC codes at hand. Will be able to get a code for you if you need it.

Chris

Hey Skiprat,

I work in an enviromental (mainly waste) consultancy in Glasgow.

I have access to lists with both SIC & EWC codes and for my current project all I needed was was if there was some document companies could easily refer to find their SIC codes. For the current project EWC codes are not necessary, but thanks anyway for yoru offer.