Identity verification at Companies House is now a legal requirement, and if you are a company director or a person with significant control, the obligation applies to you personally. This is one of the biggest changes to UK company administration in years, and missing your deadline carries consequences you cannot fix retroactively.
The rules took effect on 18 November 2025. What follows is what the official guidance says, who it covers, and the practical steps to take so your filings are not held up.
What Companies House has confirmed
According to the Companies House guidance on when you need to verify your identity, verification produces a Companies House personal code that you then supply in specific filings. When you have to do this depends on your role and when you took it up.
Directors, or people in an equivalent role, must provide their personal code as part of the company’s next confirmation statement. If you are a director of more than one company, you do this for each company separately. When a new company is registered, the personal code for each director is required as part of the registration filing.
People with significant control (PSCs), meaning individuals who own or control a large stake in a company, must verify and provide their personal code within a set 14 day window. The dates of that window depend on your circumstances, and you can check them on the Companies House register.
The timing rules are specific. If you are both a director and a PSC of the same company, you supply your code twice, once through the confirmation statement as a director and once through the “Provide identity verification details for a PSC” service, within 14 days starting the day after the confirmation statement date. If you are a PSC but not a director of that company, your 14 day period runs from the first day of your birth month. If you became a PSC after 18 November 2025, you can provide the code when first added to the register or within 14 days of being added.
There is no verification requirement for a PSC who has died. They stay on the register until a grant of probate or letters of administration is received.
What changed and who is affected
This regime comes from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, which gives Companies House stronger powers to check who is really behind a company. Before this, you could be appointed a director or recorded as a PSC without proving your identity to the registrar. That gap is now closing.
You verify in one of two ways. You can do it yourself directly through the GOV.UK identity service to obtain your personal code, or you can go through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), also known as a Companies House authorised agent. ACSPs are typically accountants, solicitors or company formation agents who have registered with Companies House and can verify their clients’ identities on their behalf.
The guidance is clear that this is being rolled out in stages. Identity verification for other roles, including people who file at Companies House, limited partnerships, corporate directors, corporate members of LLPs and officers of corporate PSCs, will be introduced later. Companies House has also flagged that in future, businesses will need to be registered as an authorised agent in order to file on behalf of clients. If your bookkeeper or agent files for you today, it is worth checking they are on track to register.
What this means for your business
For most small limited companies, the practical trigger is the confirmation statement. If you run a company with yourself as sole director and shareholder, you are almost certainly both a director and a PSC, which means two separate submissions of your personal code, in two different places, on two different timelines. Diarise both.
Do not leave this until the filing is due. Verifying your identity and receiving your personal code is a separate step that happens before you file, so treat it as advance work rather than something to complete on the day.
If you use an accountant, this is a natural conversation to have alongside your other compliance planning, in the same way you would coordinate on the next phase of Making Tax Digital. Many firms will verify you as an authorised agent and handle the personal code within your normal filing routine. Confirm whether yours will, and whether they are already registered as an ACSP, so nothing falls between the cracks. If you are weighing up software and support at the same time, our rundown of the best AI accounting tools for UK small businesses is a useful companion.
There is also a knock-on effect for growth and hiring. Appointing a new director now means that person must be verified before the appointment can be completed cleanly, so factor the extra step into board changes and share restructures. If you are formalising your team structure more broadly, our 2026 checklist for hiring your first employee covers the surrounding admin.
Steps to take now
- Confirm your roles. Check the Companies House register to see whether you are recorded as a director, a PSC, or both, for each company you are involved with. Your obligations differ for each role.
- Find your deadline. Read the official guidance and note the exact window that applies to your situation, whether that is your next confirmation statement date or the 14 day period tied to your birth month.
- Decide how you will verify. Choose between verifying yourself through the GOV.UK identity service to get your personal code, or asking your accountant or formation agent, acting as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, to verify you. Check the guidance for the identity documents you will need before you start.
- Build it into your admin routine. Record your personal code securely and add the filing dates to whatever system runs your compliance, so verification becomes a fixed part of your calendar rather than a scramble. If your back office still lives on scattered spreadsheets, our guide to the operations stack every sub-£1m business should know about may help you tighten it up.
The rules and services can be updated, so treat the Companies House guidance as the source of truth for your own deadlines and circumstances. Verify early, keep your personal code safe, and you turn a legal obligation into a routine tick on the list.
