Companies House Identity Verification: What Directors and PSCs Need to Do

If you’re a company director or you’re about to become one, identity verification is now a legal step you can’t skip. Since 18 November 2025, every director and every person with significant control has to verify their identity with Companies House.

The good news: you can do it yourself, for free, through GOV.UK One Login. We walk who needs to, when, and how, and flag the one thing not to waste money on.

Companies House Identity Verification at a Glance

The short version: every director and every person with significant control now has to verify their identity with Companies House, and there’s no way to opt out. The table has the who, when and how at a glance.

An Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) is a firm Companies House has approved to verify people for you.

Who Needs to Verify Their Identity?

Two groups have to verify: every company director, and every person with significant control. A PSC is usually anyone who holds more than a quarter of the shares or voting rights, or who can otherwise control the company. We’d sort it the day you’re appointed.

If you’re being appointed a director or forming a company now, you verify up front. If you’re an existing director or PSC, you verify by your own deadline during the transition period, which is set out below.

When You Need to Verify

Identity verification has been a legal requirement since 18 November 2025. From that date, new PSCs must verify when they are first added to the register or within 14 days, and registering a new company needs the personal code of each director.

Existing directors and PSCs get a 12-month transition. You verify by your own due date, usually tied to the company’s next confirmation statement.

Don’t leave it to the deadline. Leave it late and you hit the crunch: you’re logging in to file the confirmation statement that’s due, and it won’t go through until you’ve verified. Get it done early: you can do it online, and leaving it blocks a filing that will not wait.

How to Verify Your Identity for Companies House

There are two routes, and for most people the free one is all you need. Here’s what each involves.

GOV.UK One Login

This is the free route, and the one we’d point most people to. You prove your identity once through GOV.UK One Login, then reuse it for every company role you hold.

You’ll need photo ID, such as a passport or driving licence. You can verify using the GOV.UK ID-check app on your phone, which scans your document and face, or by answering security questions online if you’d rather not use the app.

Once you’re verified you get your personal code, and that’s the bit you carry forward to each director or PSC appointment.

Authorised Corporate Service Provider

An Authorised Corporate Service Provider, or ACSP, is a firm that Companies House has authorised to verify identities and file on your behalf. In practice that’s an accountant, solicitor or formation agent registered with a UK anti-money-laundering supervisor.

This route suits you if you’d rather someone else handle the admin, or you’re already paying an accountant to set up or run the company. They verify you, often as part of a wider package.

Often that means your accountant verifying you the same day they set up the company, so you prove your identity once and they carry the 11-character code onto the incorporation.

It may not be free: Companies House says agents may charge a fee, and each firm sets its own price. That’s fine if you want the wider help, but paying purely for the basic ID check is money you don’t need to spend.

What Your Companies House Personal Code Is

When you verify, Companies House gives you a personal code: a unique 11-character identifier that confirms you’ve verified your identity.

It’s yours for life and follows you across every company you’re involved in. You use it to connect your verified identity to each director or PSC role, so keep it somewhere you’ll find it again.

What Companies House Identity Verification Costs

Doing it yourself through GOV.UK One Login is free. That’s the number we keep coming back to.

Because the One Login route costs nothing, you don’t need to pay an accountant or agent just for the basic ID check, and agents may charge for it. Pay for one only if you also want them to handle the wider formation or your ongoing filings.

What Happens If You Do Not Verify?

If you do not verify on time, Companies House says you may be committing an offence. You may face prosecution and a fine through the courts, or a financial penalty, and Companies House says it will in future publish a note against your name on the public register.

For a new company, there’s a simpler block: Companies House won’t register it until every director has verified. So verification isn’t optional paperwork, it’s the gate you have to pass through, and we’d never leave it to the deadline.

Picture getting to the final step of forming the company, only for the application to stall because one co-director hasn’t verified: nothing moves until they do.

Identity Verification When Registering a New Company

If you’re incorporating, verification is simply the first step: sort your personal code before you start, so it can’t hold up the application.

Our guide to registering a limited company walks the whole process, with identity verification in its place in the sequence.

Companies House Identity Verification Frequently Asked Questions