For most of history, getting through a castle gate meant answering one simple challenge from the sentry: who goes there? Give a good answer and you were let in. Give a bad one, or none at all, and you stayed outside.
Companies House now has its own sentry on the gate. Since 18 November 2025, proving who you are has been a legal requirement for company directors and people with significant control (PSCs). New appointments must verify straight away, while existing directors and PSCs were given a year’s grace. That year runs out in mid-November 2026.
If you run or own a limited company and haven’t verified yet, the time to do it is now.
What’s changed, and why
The new rules come from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. For years, anyone could be listed as a director at Companies House without any check that they were who they claimed to be. Fake names, borrowed identities and shell companies followed. Verification is meant to make the register something people can rely on.
A great many people are still to act. Companies House estimates that 6 to 7 million people need to verify, and its own figures show that by the end of June 2026 only around 55% of directors and 42% of PSCs had done so. For the rest, it is now a matter of weeks rather than months.
Who needs to verify
You need to verify your identity if you are:
- a director of a UK company, or the equivalent (such as a member of an LLP)
- a person with significant control, which broadly means anyone who owns more than 25% of the shares or votes, or can appoint or remove most of the board
- a director of an overseas company registered in the UK
Most owner-managers are both a director and a PSC of their own company. You only verify once, but you then link your verified identity to each role separately, and to each company if you are involved in more than one.
Sole traders and ordinary partnerships aren’t affected, because they aren’t on the company register. Verification for people who simply file documents for a company, and for corporate directors, will follow at a later date.
When is your deadline?
Verifying gets you a Companies House personal code. When you must hand that code over depends on your role:
| Your situation | When you must provide your personal code |
| Existing director | In your company’s next confirmation statement |
| Existing PSC who is also a director | Within 14 days, starting the day after the company’s confirmation statement date |
| Existing PSC who is not a director | Within the first 14 days of your birth month |
| New director (since 18 November 2025) | When you are appointed, or when the company is formed |
| New PSC (since 18 November 2025) | When you are added to the register, or within 14 days |
Every company files a confirmation statement at least once a year, so every existing director meets their deadline within the year’s grace. If your company’s statement is due in the next few weeks, you are in the final group. If it has filed one since November 2025, its directors have very likely verified already, because the filing can’t go through without their codes.
You can check your company’s confirmation statement date, and the dates of any PSC window, free of charge on the Companies House register.
How to verify
There are two ways to do it. Companies House does not accept identity documents by post or email, so don’t send them.
- Do it yourself, free, through GOV.UK One Login. The Verify your identity for Companies House service asks a few questions, then guides you to one of three routes: an app on your phone, security questions online, or entering your photo ID details and finishing at a participating Post Office. Answer the questions about yourself, not your company.
- Use an authorised agent. An accountant, solicitor or formation agent who is registered with Companies House as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) can check your documents and confirm your identity on your behalf. They may charge for this. It is often the easier route if the app doesn’t recognise your ID, or if you live abroad.
Either way, you finish with a personal code. Keep it as safe as your tax reference, and share it only with people you trust to file for you.
Then comes the step people forget: linking the code to each role. Directors give their code to whoever files the confirmation statement. PSCs provide theirs through the Provide identity verification details for a PSC service.
What happens if you don’t
This is not a box-ticking exercise that can be quietly ignored.
- Your company cannot file its confirmation statement unless every director has verified.
- Carrying on as a director after your deadline without verifying is an offence, and the company and its other directors may be committing one too.
- PSCs who don’t comply may also be committing an offence.
- Penalties include prosecution and a fine through the courts, or a financial penalty.
- Companies House plans to mark unverified people on the public register, and they won’t be able to become a director of another company or set up a new one.
Companies House has said it will use the full range of its powers once the grace period ends.
Common snags, and how to avoid them
- Names that don’t match. If the register shows your name differently from your passport or driving licence (a missing middle name, a former surname), sort that out first. A mismatch can leave a role showing as unverified even after you’ve done everything right.
- More than one company. Verify once only. Then link the same personal code to each director or PSC role you hold.
- Directors abroad or without photo ID. Allow extra time. An authorised agent can verify people in any country.
- The GOV.UK route is free. Be wary of unexpected emails, texts or calls offering to verify you for a fee, or asking for your personal code.
- Leaving it to the last week. If the app route fails and you need the Post Office or an agent, it takes longer. Start now and you have room to fix any problems.
Answer the sentry
A year ago, this deadline felt a long way off. It is now a few weeks away. Three steps will see most people through:
- Check your company’s confirmation statement date on the register.
- Verify your identity, and keep your personal code safe.
- Send your code to whoever files for your company, and link it to any PSC role.
If you’d like a hand working out your dates, or you’ve hit a snag, call us on 0333 880 1915 or get in touch.