Companies House identity verification: what directors need to do

What is Companies House identity verification?

Identity verification is a check that the people running and controlling UK companies are who they say they are. It became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025, under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, after a voluntary period that started on 8 April 2025.

According to Companies House’s guidance, Verifying your identity for Companies House (updated 1 June 2026), it applies now to:

• company directors, and equivalent roles such as LLP members;
• people with significant control (PSCs).

Each person verifies once. Their identity then links to every role they hold, at any number of companies.

When do you need to verify?

The date depends on whether you were already in the role when the law changed.

18 November 2025 was not a deadline. It started a 12-month transition period that ends around 18 November 2026, because every company files a confirmation statement at least once a year. Each person’s due date is shown against their name on the Companies House register.

How do you verify your identity?

There are two routes, both described in the Companies House rollout announcement:

1. GOV.UK One Login, free. Verify through the GOV.UK ID Check app with photo ID, by answering security questions online, or in person at a Post Office.
2. An Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). An agent such as an accountant or formation company that is supervised for anti-money laundering and registered with Companies House. ACSPs may charge.

Companies House is clear that ID documents should never be posted or emailed to it. Anyone asking for that is not following the official process.

What is the personal code?

Once verified, you receive an 11-character personal code. It is personal to you, the same for all your roles, and is how you prove your verified identity when a company files something about you.

The personal codes guidance (updated 13 July 2026) says the code appears under “Manage account” in your Companies House account. People who verified after 8 July 2026 were also sent it by email; people verified by an ACSP receive it at the email address the agent gave.

The personal code is not the same as the company’s 6-character authentication code, which authorises the company’s filings. The authentication code guide explains the difference.

What happens if you don’t verify?

Failing to verify is an offence, and so is acting as a director without being verified. Companies House lists financial penalties as a possible consequence, and a company whose directors aren’t verified can be prevented from making filings.

Does it affect filing accounts?

Not directly, yet. Directors already have to be verified in their role as directors. Separately, verification for people who file at Companies House, including presenters sending accounts through software, is planned for no earlier than November 2027, with at least six months’ notice.

That timing overlaps with the move to software-only accounts filing on 1 April 2028, described on the WebFiling closure page. Directors who file their own accounts will likely need to be verified both as a director and as a filer.

Why so many people are searching for it

“Companies House identity verification” is searched about 27,100 times a month in the UK, with a further 1,900 for “director identity verification” (DataForSEO, November 2026). That is about 20 times the searches for “file dormant accounts” (1,300), and it fits the shape of the transition: every existing director meets the requirement at their company’s next confirmation statement, so the deadline arrives company by company rather than on one date.

The ending of the transition period in November 2026 does not end the requirement. New directors and PSCs will keep meeting it at appointment, which suggests the searches will settle rather than stop.