Date posted: 20th Nov 2025
The new requirements for identity verification at Companies House took effect from 18th November 2025. This has the backing of the law, as set out in amendments to the Companies Act 2006 following the Economic & Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Companies House published their approach to dealing with non-compliance on 17th November 2025, which can be found here:
Who needs to verify identity?
Taking the most common scenarios:
- Directors or equivalent such as LLP members, general partners to limited partnerships
- A Person with Significant Control (PSC) – broadly speaking is an individual with over 25% ownership/control in a company/LLP/LP. Each existing company/LLP should have a PSC register already on record with Companies House, to show who the PSCs are (if any).
In due course agents and any individual that files documents for a company will also need to verify identity.
When do you need to verify your identity?
Whilst the 18th November 2025 has now passed, it is important to realise that this is not the deadline to have verified by. It is the start date for a transition period of 12 months, over which the ID will need to be verified by those mentioned above.
The actual deadline to verify by depends on the individual circumstances, as mentioned below.
- Director only – by the due date of the next CS01 Confirmation Statement of the company which you are director in. If involved in more than one company, then this effectively means the date of the earliest CS01 for any of those companies. A company will not be able to file its CS01 until the ID has been verified, which could result in a negative impact on the company’s credit rating, as well as potential penalties.
For new directors ID will have to be verified before you can be appointed.
- Director and also a PSC – effectively as above, although technically the verification code (further on that below) cannot be entered until the day after the date the CS01 is prepared up to. Must be done within 14 days of that date.
For new PSCs – within 14 days of becoming a PSC.
- PSC only – within 14 days of the month of your birth.
Example – PSC only
Tom holds 30% of the shares in Jones Limited, and so is noted as a PSC at Companies House. He is not a director. He was born on 2nd December 1977. His first birthday after the 18th November 2025 mandatory implementation date is 2nd December 2025. The rules require him to verify his ID with Companies House within 14 days of his birth month, which means by 14th December 2025. This is even though Thumb Limited will not be filing its next Confirmation Statement until July 2026.
As of 18th November 2025 Companies House have also updated the public register for each company, to show on there the due date for each individual director and each PSC. However, it gets more complicated! If they pick up on the name of the PSC being the same as that of a director, then the due date to verify by should be linked to the CS01 due date the applies for that director. Unfortunately, where the name is not exactly the same, their system thinks they are two separate people, and so for the PSC it thinks they must verify by the 14th of the birth month, which may be earlier than the CS01 due date of the company.
Example – someone will full name George Derek Smith. The directors register at Companies House has that full name, but the PSC register just has George Smith, missing out the middle name. He is therefore treated as two separate people on their system. In this situation the name will need to be corrected on the registers so that they match.
It is clear to see that the above will cause a great deal of confusion, so the best advice is to verify your identity now.
How to verify your identity
There are three options available, with the first being our recommended route.
- With Companies House directly –via the gov.uk One Login service: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/verify-your-identity-for-companies-house. This is the simplest route to use, is free of charge and so we recommend that businesses follow. It involves the biometric scanning of passports/driving licenses, as well as using facial recognition.
- In person at selected Post Offices – if you do not have the required documents to verify ID with gov.uk in step one. More information on this in the link above.
- Using an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) – accountants and other regulated professionals. Clive Owen LLP is registered as an ACSP. This still requires the use of software to verify ID via facial recognition.
The good news is that this is a one off exercise and once an individual is verified with Companies House, they will not have to repeat the process in future years.
What to do once verified
At the end of the ID verification process each person will receive a ‘personal code’.
Directors – the code will be needed by the company/companies you are involved in, when the next CS01 Confirmation Statement is filed for each.
PSCs – Companies House have now released their service to use to notify them: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/provide-psc-verification
More information can be found on the Companies House website, which has been updated on 18th November 2025: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/verifying-your-identity-for-companies-house
How can we help?
Clive Owen LLP can assist you with navigating these new regulations. Get in touch with the team today to find out how we could help.
