Since 18 November 2025 every individual director and every person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company must have their identity verified with Companies House. You verify once, free through GOV.UK One Login or for a fee through an authorised agent, receive a Companies House personal code, and then link that code to each role you hold. Existing directors link their code through the company’s next confirmation statement, during a 12 month transition period.

What is identity verification and which law requires it?

Identity verification was introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, which amended the Companies Act 2006. Section 1110A of the 2006 Act defines when an individual’s “identity is verified”: either Companies House (the registrar) has verified it, or an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) has delivered a verification statement that also names the ACSP’s supervisory authority under the Money Laundering Regulations.

The core duty for directors is section 167M. An individual must not act as a director unless their identity is verified, and the company itself must ensure that no unverified individual acts as a director. Companies House describes the purpose as reducing fraud and improving the accuracy of the register. Voluntary verification opened on 8 April 2025 and it became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025.

Who has to verify their identity?

Companies House guidance lists the people in scope now:

  • directors of companies, and their equivalents, including LLP members, general partners and managing officers
  • directors of overseas companies registered in the UK
  • persons with significant control
  • Authorised Corporate Service Providers, also called Companies House authorised agents

Verification will be introduced later for people who file at Companies House, limited partnerships, corporate directors of companies, corporate members of LLPs and officers of corporate PSCs. The Companies House transition plan says that verification of presenters, and the rule that third party agents filing for companies must be registered as ACSPs, will come no earlier than November 2027, with at least six months’ notice. A company secretary who is not also a director or PSC is not in the current list; secretaries who file for the company fall into that later phase.

When do directors and PSCs have to verify?

Directors

A director who was already in post on 18 November 2025 must provide their personal code in the company’s next confirmation statement. A director of several companies does this for each company. New companies must give the personal code for every director in the incorporation filing, and a new appointment to an existing company needs the code in the appointment filing. Companies House is clear that a company cannot file its confirmation statement unless all of its directors are verified. An overseas company must confirm that all its directors have verified by the anniversary of the registration of its UK establishment.

Persons with significant control

Each PSC has a personal 14 day window in which to provide their code through the separate “Provide identity verification details for a PSC” service:

  • PSC who is also a director of the same company: the window starts the day after the company’s confirmation statement date. Filing the confirmation statement early does not move it.
  • PSC who is not a director: the window is the first 14 days of the PSC’s birth month as shown on the register, so a PSC born on 22 January has a window starting 1 January.
  • PSC registered after 18 November 2025: the code can be given when the PSC is first added to the register or within 14 days of being added.

The dates for every role are shown on the Companies House register. A PSC who has died does not need to verify; the entry stays on the register until probate or letters of administration are granted.

How do you verify, and what is the personal code?

There are only two routes. Companies House says you must not post or email identity documents to it.

  1. GOV.UK One Login. The “Verify your identity for Companies House” service is free. Depending on your answers it routes you to an app, to online security questions, or to entering your photo ID details and then visiting a participating Post Office. The answers must be about you, not your company.
  2. An ACSP. An accountant, solicitor or other professional registered with Companies House as an authorised agent can verify you. The agent must be registered with a UK anti money laundering supervisory body, may charge a fee and will ask for documents from an approved list. You can use this route from any country.

Once verified you receive a Companies House personal code. It belongs to you, not to any company, and you use the same code for every role. Companies House compares it to an HMRC Unique Taxpayer Reference: share it only with people you trust to file for you. In most cases you verify once and must not verify again unless Companies House asks you to.

What happens if someone does not verify?

A director who continues to act after their deadline without complying commits an offence under section 167M, and the company and every officer in default may also commit an offence. On summary conviction the penalty is a fine in England and Wales, and in Scotland or Northern Ireland a fine up to level 5 on the standard scale with a daily default fine for continued breach. A PSC who continues as a PSC without complying may also be committing an offence.

Companies House can prosecute or impose a financial penalty instead. Under its published approach, the registrar first sends a warning notice; if the required action is taken within 28 days beginning the day after the notice date, no penalty is charged. Penalties then range from £250 for a first minor offence to £2,000 for a fourth or later very serious offence. Companies House also says it will note non compliance against the person’s name on the public register and block them from new appointments, new incorporations and ACSP registration.

Two points are often missed. First, section 167M(6) says the only consequence is the offence, so acts of an unverified director, such as signing a contract, are not invalid. Second, enforcement has started: in September 2026 the Insolvency Service announced its first convictions, in which two unverified directors who had kept acting and signing accounts were fined, along with a verified director who had not taken reasonable steps to stop a fellow director acting while unverified. Each case also involved a late confirmation statement.

How does this work in practice for a director of two companies?

Illustration only. Priya is a director of Alpha Ltd and Beta Ltd and owns 60% of Beta’s shares, so she is also Beta’s PSC. She verifies once through GOV.UK One Login and receives one personal code.

Role Where the code goes When
Director of Alpha Alpha’s confirmation statement Alpha’s next confirmation statement
Director of Beta Beta’s confirmation statement Beta’s next confirmation statement, say with a confirmation date of 30 June
PSC of Beta The PSC identity verification service 14 days starting the day after Beta’s confirmation statement date, so 1 to 14 July

If Beta’s other director has not verified, Beta cannot file its confirmation statement at all, and the company risks a late filing offence on top of the verification offence.

What mistakes do directors and advisers make?

  • Verifying but not linking. Verification on its own is not enough. The code must be attached to each directorship and each PSC role.
  • Assuming the director step covers the PSC role. A director who is also a PSC provides the code twice, through two different routes.
  • Leaving it to the confirmation statement deadline. One unverified director blocks the whole filing. See the confirmation statement explained for the filing itself.
  • Verifying again. Companies House says not to unless it tells you to.
  • Sending passports to Companies House. Documents should only go to an ACSP, never by post or email to Companies House.
  • Ignoring Companies House email. Companies House writes about verification to the registered email address, which every company has had to provide since 4 March 2024. Our page on registered office address rules covers that duty.

What does this mean for accountancy practices?

A practice that wants to verify clients’ identities must itself apply to become an ACSP, which requires the applicant to verify their own identity and to be supervised for anti money laundering purposes. Our guide to AML supervision for accountants explains that supervision. Verification sits alongside a director’s other personal duties, summarised in directors’ tax responsibilities, and the PSC rules are explained in our page on persons with significant control. Companies House has said that in future, businesses will need to be registered as authorised agents to file on behalf of clients, so practices that file confirmation statements and appointments should plan for registration now.

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Sources

Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.