Business Owners: Verify Your Identity with Companies House

Company directors and people with significant control (PSCs) will have to verify their identity with Companies House starting from 18th November 2025. The government hopes that this will make the Companies House register more reliable while tackling economic crime and increasing investment in UK businesses.

What’s changing?

From 18th November:

• New directors will have to verify their identity to incorporate a company or be appointed to an existing company.

• Existing directors will need to verify their identity when they file their next annual confirmation statement, during a 12-month transition period.

From 18th November, directors and PSCs will be able to check the Companies House register to find out verification due dates for all of their roles. The option has been open to verify their identity on a voluntary basis since April 2025.

Steps to verify identity on Companies House

Companies House is advising company directors and PSCs to verify their identity as soon as possible. You’ve got two options here:

• Verify your identity through GOV.UK One Login – it’s free and can be easily completed online.

• Go through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider.

Fortunately, you’ll only need to verify your identity once. If you’re still unsure, don’t fret; Companies House is contacting businesses on the email addresses that have been provided to the body to inform directors and PSCs of what they need to do to become verified.

Every PSC has a 14-day period where they must submit a statement confirming they have verified their identity, along with their Companies House personal code. These dates will be different for each PSC and dependent on if you’re a PSC when identity verification requirements come into force on 18th November, or you’re a director of the company.

If PSCs register after 18th November, their 14-day period starts from when they register with Companies House. For those who are already a PSC on 18th November, their 14-day period starts from the company’s confirmation statement date. If you are not a director of the company, your 14-day period starts from the first day of your month of birth, as it’s shown on the Companies House register.

Identify verification for the following persons will be introduced at a later stage:

• Limited partnerships.

• Corporate directors of companies.

• Corporate members of limited liability partnerships.

• Officers of corporate PSCs.

  
  

What will happen if I don’t comply?

From 18th November, it’ll be an offence to act as a company director without being verified. Existing directors will need to verify their identity ahead of their company’s confirmation statement. All of that said, Companies House will support businesses to help them to comply with requirements and, in turn, will take a ‘proportionate approach’ to enforcement.

A long time coming

The news has been welcomed across the small business community, but there’s a heavy dose of confusion as to why it wasn’t introduced earlier.

Ollie Hayes, director at Bath-based gym, So Fit Bath, certainly thinks so: “How – and why – is this only being done now? I know someone who had a company set up in their name, which they didn’t have a clue about for a few years. Thankfully, once they’d found out they managed to get their name removed. It’s startling how easy it has been for this to happen,” he said. “This is a welcome step from Companies House but it does feel like they are behind the curve.”

Reducing crime is a major draw of the new rule, as Stephen Perkins, managing director at Yellow Brick Mortgages, hopes. “Verifying my identity with Companies House was quick and easy. This is something that should always have been in place, but wasn’t. It should make it clearer who owns what companies and protect against fraud. Hopefully it will clearly show those directors who consistently phoenix their companies.”

Sam Alsop-Hall, co-founder at Clive Henry Group, thinks it’s essential for building trust. “If the UK wants to remain a credible and investable place to do business, changes like this are essential,” he said. “It’s a bit of effort now, but the long-term benefits to trust, transparency and fairness make it worthwhile.”

Key takeaways

• Company directors and people with significant control (PSCs) will have to verify their identity with Companies House from 18th November 2025.

• Verify your identity via GOV.UK One Login or through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider.

• Every PSC has a 14-day period where they must submit a statement confirming they have verified their identity, along with their Companies House personal code.

• Identity verification for other significant figures in a business will be introduced at a later date.

• It will be an offence to act as a company director without being verified, but Companies House will take a ‘proportionate approach’ to enforcement.

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