Identity verification at Companies House stopped being optional on 18 November 2025. Companies House is explicit that this date is not a deadline: it marks the start of a 12-month transition period, and no hard cut-off date for that period has been published. What binds you is your own due date — and for a director, that is the company’s next confirmation statement.
If you are a director of a UK company, you must verify your identity and then connect that verified identity to each company you direct. Miss it and you are committing an offence, your company cannot file its confirmation statement, and you cannot be appointed to a new company or register one.
This catches out otherwise well-organised directors, because verifying is only half of it. Here is the whole sequence.
The timeline
| Date | What it means |
|---|---|
| 8 April 2025 | Voluntary verification opened, via GOV.UK One Login or an authorised agent |
| 18 November 2025 | Verification became a legal requirement. Companies House states plainly that this date is not a deadline — it starts a 12-month transition period |
| Throughout the transition | Each director’s operative deadline is their company’s next confirmation statement; each PSC has their own 14-day window |
| End of the transition | No cut-off date has been published. Do not wait for one — verify by your own due date |
The change comes from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, and is intended to make it materially harder to register companies using false identities.
Who has to verify
You need to verify your identity if you are:
- a director of a UK company
- the equivalent of a director — LLP members, general partners, managing officers
- a director of an overseas company registered in the UK
- a person with significant control (PSC)
- an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), also called a Companies House authorised agent
In most cases you verify once, and should not verify again unless Companies House tells you to.
Not yet in scope. Verification will be introduced later for people who file at Companies House, limited partnerships, corporate directors, corporate members of LLPs, and officers of corporate PSCs. No action is required yet if you are only in one of those categories.
One of those categories now has an indicative date. Companies House has said that from no earlier than November 2027 it will introduce identity verification for people who file at Companies House, and that it will give at least 6 months’ notice before the requirement comes into effect. If you file for clients or for your own company but are not a director or PSC, that is the horizon to plan against. The remaining categories are still undated.
The two routes
| GOV.UK One Login | Authorised Corporate Service Provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Companies House, using GOV.UK One Login | An accountant, solicitor or formation agent registered with Companies House |
| Cost | Free | The agent may charge a fee |
| How it works | App, online security questions, or photo ID entered online then confirmed at a participating Post Office | You give the agent documents from an approved list |
| Where you can be | Anywhere, subject to the checks available to you | Any country — the agent must be UK AML-supervised and Companies House-registered |
| Best for | Most individual directors | Directors overseas, or anyone whose documents do not fit the digital route |
Do not post or email identity documents to Companies House. Those are the only two routes, and neither involves sending documents in.
If you already have an accountant or solicitor, ask whether they are a registered ACSP. If not, Companies House publishes a list of providers.
Your Companies House personal code
When you verify successfully, you receive a Companies House personal code. It is unique to you as an individual — not to your company, and not to any company you work for.
You need it whenever you file a confirmation statement, are appointed as a director, become a PSC, or incorporate a company.
Treat it like a UTR. You may need to share it with whoever files on your behalf, but keep it secure and share it only with people you trust.
Existing directors: the step people miss
Verifying is not the end of it. You then have to connect your verified identity to Companies House records for each role you hold.
If you are already a director, you do that by providing your personal code in your company’s next confirmation statement.
Three consequences follow:
You do it once per company. Direct four companies and your code goes into four separate confirmation statements.
The confirmation statement is the deadline. No separate form, no separate date. Whenever the next statement falls due, that is when the code must be supplied.
One unverified director blocks the whole filing. The company cannot file unless every director has verified. A single director who has not got round to it stops the company meeting an obligation that carries a financial penalty and a strike-off risk.
If you are appointed as a new director, you supply the code in the appointment filing, or in the incorporation if you are registering a new company.
PSCs: separate windows, separate service
PSCs do not use the confirmation statement. They use the ‘Provide identity verification details for a PSC’ service, and each gets a 14-day period in which to supply their personal code.
| Your situation | Your 14-day window |
|---|---|
| PSC and a director of the same company | Starts the day after the company’s confirmation statement date. Filing the statement early does not move it |
| PSC but not a director of that company | The first 14 days of your birth month. A 22 January date of birth means a window opening on 1 January |
| Became a PSC after 18 November 2025 | When you are first added to the register, or within 14 days of being added |
If you are both a director and a PSC of the same company, you provide the code twice — once in the confirmation statement, once through the PSC service. Doing one does not satisfy the other. You can check your exact 14-day window on the Companies House register.
One point rarely covered: verification is not required for a PSC who has died. They stay on the register until a grant of probate or letters of administration is received.
What happens if you do not verify
It is an offence. Continuing to act as a director without completing all verification requirements is an offence, and the company and its other directors may also be committing one.
You can be prosecuted or fined. Companies House can pursue prosecution and a fine through the courts, or impose a financial penalty directly.
Your filings stop. The company cannot file its confirmation statement while a director is unverified.
You are locked out of new appointments. You cannot be appointed to an existing company, register a new one, or register as an authorised agent.
A note will appear against your name. Companies House has said it will in future publish a note on the public register against the names of people who have not complied, and that it will use the full range of its powers.
If you have not verified yet
Do it in this order:
- Verify through the ‘Verify your identity for Companies House’ service via GOV.UK One Login, or ask an ACSP to do it. The government route is free.
- Store the personal code somewhere you will find it again.
- Check every company you are attached to — directorships, PSC registrations, LLP memberships — on the register rather than from memory.
- Connect the code to each role. Directorships go through the next confirmation statement. PSC roles go through the PSC verification service in your 14-day window.
- Chase your co-directors. The confirmation statement is blocked until every one of them has verified.
Most readers are not late. The transition period is still running, and for a director the date that matters is the company’s next confirmation statement — so work back from that rather than from any national cut-off. If a statement has already fallen due and is stuck because someone has not verified, or a PSC window has closed, verify now rather than waiting for the next filing date. The offence relates to acting without complying, so the exposure runs until you do.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to verify my identity if I am a director?
Yes. Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025 for all directors, PSCs, LLP members and their equivalents. That date is not itself a deadline — it started a 12-month transition period, and Companies House has not published a cut-off date for it. Your deadline is your company’s next confirmation statement. Verification is a one-off for most people, but you must then connect your personal code to each role you hold.
How do existing directors provide their personal code?
Through the company’s next confirmation statement, separately for each company you direct. New directors provide it as part of the appointment filing or the incorporation.
Is Companies House identity verification free?
Verifying through the GOV.UK One Login route is free. An Authorised Corporate Service Provider may charge a fee for verifying you on their behalf.
What if I am both a director and a PSC of the same company?
You provide your personal code twice — once in the confirmation statement for the director role, and once through the ‘Provide identity verification details for a PSC’ service within a 14-day period starting the day after the company’s confirmation statement date.
What happens if a director does not verify?
Continuing to act as a director without complying is an offence, and the company and its other directors may also be committing one. Companies House can prosecute or impose a financial penalty, the company cannot file its confirmation statement, and the individual cannot be appointed to a new company or register one.
Keeping the rest of your filings on track
Identity verification is a one-off with a recurring tail: every confirmation statement now depends on it. Add the accounts deadline, the CT600 and the tax payment date and there is a lot to track.
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