Obtain a business licence

---
type: "Service Family"
title: "Obtain a business licence"
description: "Identify every activity and place that may require consent and apply to the named national, devolved or local licensing authority."
status: "population-complete"
assertion_status: "normalized"
jurisdiction: "nation-specific"
observed_at: "2026-08-08"
sources:
  - id: "starting-and-running-organisation-source-register"
    title: "Starting and running an organisation"
    resource: "../source/domain-registers/starting-and-running-organisation.v1.yaml"
    author: "organisation:okf-uk-living"
    observed_at: "2026-08-08"
---

# Obtain a business licence

## Place in the process

This topic sits within **Operate, regulate and close an organisation** in the **Starting and running an organisation** life-course
domain. What comes before depends on the person's situation and nation; the first
safe step is to select the current official route rather than assume one UK process.

## What this family covers

Identify every activity and place that may require consent and apply to the named national, devolved or local licensing authority.

The ordinary discovery journey is to select the jurisdiction-specific route, follow
the responsible authority or provider's current instructions, and retain the
confirmation, referral, decision or next-step information it produces.

## If the ordinary route does not fit

If a route is unavailable, the circumstances fall outside it, or the source signals
an urgent, safeguarding, clinical or legal boundary, stop and follow that authority's
exception or complaint handoff. The bundle records this branch but does not decide it.

Where a non-public provider is needed, start with the current public regulator, register or commissioning route; this bundle does not recommend providers.

## Official routes

- [England: Licence finder](https://www.gov.uk/licence-finder)
- [Scotland: Business support in Scotland](https://www.mygov.scot/business-support)
- [Wales: Licence finder](https://www.gov.uk/licence-finder)
- [Northern Ireland: Starting a business in Northern Ireland](https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/starting-business)

These are links and original navigation summaries. A national discovery page is a
handoff to the current service, not evidence that eligibility, evidence, costs,
deadlines or remedies are identical across nations or providers.

## What may follow

The result can feed the next family in **Operate, regulate and close an organisation**, another enclosing
process, or a provider-specific review or redress route. Use Graph to inspect the
ordinary and exception episodes, sources, actors, requirements, outputs and outcomes.

## Review status

This record is population-complete for discovery and requires specialist review
before any legal, clinical, safeguarding or high-impact operational claim is
described as release-grade.