Companies House Identity Verification — What Directors Actually Need to Do

If you run a limited company and you haven't heard about the new Companies House identity verification requirement yet, you're not alone — but you do need to deal with it before your next confirmation statement.

Here's what it is, why it exists, when your deadline actually is (it's probably earlier than you think), and what you need to do about it. No legal jargon, no waffle.

What is it and why is it happening?

Companies House used to run on trust. Anyone could register a company, name a director and file documents with very little proof that the person on the form was real. That gap got abused. Fraudulent companies, directors who did not exist, and structures used as money laundering fronts all sat on the public register because the checks were thin.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 — ECCTA — is the fix. Every individual director, every person with significant control, and every LLP member now has to prove they are who they say they are. The requirement became mandatory on 18 November 2025. If you were already a director on that date, you are in a transition period. If you were appointed after it, you should already be verified. It was required at the point of appointment.

When is your actual deadline?

17 November 2026 is the date people quote. Treat it as the backstop: the hard outer limit for existing directors and PSCs. It is not your personal deadline unless your own company's filing falls after it, in which case the backstop pulls you forward to that day.

Your personal deadline is your company's next confirmation statement date after 18 November 2025. A confirmation statement is the annual filing that confirms the company's details are still correct. Its due date is that company's filing anniversary, not a universal date Companies House assigned to everyone. Two companies incorporated a month apart have two different deadlines.

The filing rule is what makes the date bite. You cannot file a confirmation statement without a personal code for every director. No verification means no code. No code means Companies House will not accept the statement, and a company that cannot file is non-compliant.

If you are a director of more than one company, the earliest confirmation statement date sets your personal deadline, not the latest. Verifying in time for the company that files in June does nothing for the company that files in February.

If you are both a director and a PSC of the same company, you verify once and you receive one personal code. The PSC role still has its own step: a 14-day window after the confirmation statement date for the PSC notification. That 14-day window is the relevant one to diary when you hold both roles.

If you are a PSC but not a director of the company, your deadline works differently. Rather than being tied to the confirmation statement, you must provide your personal code within the first 14 days of your birth month as shown on the Companies House register. For example, if Companies House shows your birth month as March, your window is 1-14 March 2026. Check your birth month on the Companies House register before your window opens — a mismatch between your registered details and your ID will cause the verification to fail.

What you actually need to do

There are two routes. Both end with the same thing: a personal code from Companies House. Which one you use depends on your documents and where you are.

Route 1 — GOV.UK One Login (free, about 15 minutes)

This is the online self-service route on GOV.UK, and for most UK-based directors it takes about 15 minutes. You sign in to a GOV.UK One Login account, or you create one. You need a biometric passport — the kind with a chip, which covers most modern passports — or a UK photocard driving licence. The service checks the document, takes a photo of your face to match you to the ID, and Companies House issues your personal code. If you are in the UK and your documents are the standard ones, start here.

Route 2 — Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP)

An ACSP is a company or an individual registered with Companies House to carry out verification on its behalf. Accountants, solicitors and company formation agents can register. Use this route if you are based overseas — GOV.UK One Login commonly fails for overseas directors, usually on the SMS check or the passport scan — if your documents do not match the Companies House record exactly, or if you would rather someone else handle it. A typical fee is £35–£50 plus VAT. Registered ACSPs are listed on the Companies House register.

What is the personal code and what do you do with it?

Once you are verified, Companies House issues a unique personal code. It links your verified identity to your records on the register. Keep it. You provide it when the company files its next confirmation statement. If your accountant or company secretary files for you, give them the code rather than making them ask for it the week the statement is due.

Verification is a one-time check. The same code covers all of your directorships. You do not verify again for each company. You do still supply the code on each company's confirmation statement.

Who needs to do this — and who doesn't

You must verify if you are an individual director of a UK company, a person with significant control, a member of an LLP, or an individual director of an overseas company that has a UK establishment. A PSC is someone who owns 25% or more of the shares, controls 25% or more of the voting rights, or can appoint or remove a majority of the board.

You are not required yet if the director is itself a company. Identity verification for corporate directors — a company acting as director of another company — is a later phase, and it has not started. A shareholder who is not also a PSC does not have to verify. Someone who only files documents, and holds no director or PSC role, is in a separate phase that is not expected before November 2027 at the earliest.

What happens if you miss your deadline?

• Non-compliance with identity verification is an offence under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA).
• Companies House can restrict your company's filings, so documents will not be accepted.
• The register can be annotated to show non-compliance, and that annotation is publicly visible.
• Your company risks being struck off if the confirmation statement cannot be filed.
• Civil penalties of up to £10,000 can be imposed.

The first consequence is immediate and practical. Companies House rejects the confirmation statement. It will not accept the filing without personal codes for all the directors.

Leave that statement unfiled and the problem stops being a rejected form. Failing to file a confirmation statement is a criminal offence, and Companies House can strike the company off the register. That is how a trading company comes off the register because a filing never went in.

Alongside the filing offence, failing to comply with the identity verification requirement can bring a civil penalty of up to £10,000.

Companies House has significantly increased its enforcement activity alongside the ECCTA reforms. The days of filing being a low-consequence administrative task are over.

A few things that catch people out

The name on your Companies House record has to match your ID exactly. A middle name included on one and missing on the other, a hyphen, a maiden name — any of those can make the automated check fail. Sort the register record before you try to verify, not after the photo has already been rejected.

GOV.UK One Login sends its text message to a UK phone number. Overseas directors with a non-UK number hit that wall. Do not keep retrying the same screen. Use an ACSP.

Do not leave this until the last week before your confirmation statement date. If the service is queued, or the check needs a manual review, you do not want to be racing the filing deadline with an identity problem still open.

If you have more than one company, work out which confirmation statement comes first. That date is your deadline, not the latest one.

The quick version

If you were a director before 18 November 2025, your deadline is the company's next confirmation statement date after that day, or 17 November 2026 at the absolute latest. If you became a director after 18 November 2025, you should already be verified — it was required before the appointment was filed.

Either way, the online check takes about 15 minutes with a biometric passport or a UK driving licence. Do it now rather than the week the confirmation statement is due.