Directors Now Have to Verify Identity With Companies House

If you run a UK company, you've probably had an email or two about Companies House director identity verification by now.

The requirement has been there since November 2025, but the deadline might still seem confusing, because it isn't one date on the calendar for everyone. It depends on your company - though for almost everyone, that means being sorted by this November.

It's not just you

Your director role isn't the only thing that's covered. "Identity verification" also applies if you're:

• A person with significant control (PSC)
• An LLP member, general partner or managing officer
• A director of an overseas company registered in the UK
• An Authorised Corporate Service Provider, if you're an accountant or solicitor verifying identities on Companies House's behalf

If you hold more than one of these at the same company, you need to give Companies House your code separately for each role.

So, when is the director ID verification deadline?

If you're already a director, yours is tied to your confirmation statement, and Companies House wants your personal code by the time that's due.

Since every company files on its own date, your deadline won't line up with the next director's. If you were appointed after 18 November 2025, or you're setting up a new company, you don't get that same runway: you need to verify before or at the point of appointment.

If you're a PSC but not also a director, your deadline depends on when you became one.

• If you were already registered as a PSC before 18 November 2025, it's tied to your birth month: you get 14 days from the start of that month to verify.
• If you became a PSC after 18 November 2025, the birth-month rule doesn't apply - instead, you get 14 days from the date you're added to the register.

If you're both a PSC and a director at the same company, you don't redo the ID check itself, but you still need to submit your code separately for the PSC side, within 14 days after your confirmation statement date.

There's a wider transition window running underneath all of this.

Companies House gave everyone 12 months from November 2025 to get compliant, and that window runs out this November.

If your confirmation statement already came round since the rule started, you'd likely know by now, since Companies House won't accept the filing until you're verified. If it hasn't yet, November is still likely your outer limit.

You can check your due date on the Companies House register, it's listed against your company.

How to verify

Two ways to do it -

1.You can use GOV.UK One Login yourself. It's free, mostly online, with an in-person Post Office option if your ID and the camera don't quite see eye to eye.

2.You can ask an accountant or solicitor who's registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider to verify you, usually for a fee.

Once you've verified, you'll get an 11 character personal code. It belongs to you (not your company), so if you're a director of more than one, the same code covers all of them. You can find it by signing into your Companies House account and checking "Manage account.”

While you're at it, take a look at opening an Ampere business account. It asks for the same kind of ID, and by the end of that one you've also got a UK and EUR account, plus a card.

What happens if you don't verify

Missing this counts as a criminal offence and it doesn't stop with you.

Companies House won't accept your confirmation statement if any of your directors are unverified, so it becomes your company's problem too.

How serious it gets depends on how long you leave it, and whether it happens more than once.

That can mean a financial penalty, potentially a public flag against your name on the register, disqualification, or your company being struck off. Companies House hasn't published a set fine amount for this, so don't take a specific number you see quoted elsewhere at face value.

If you missed a deadline for a genuine reason, like a system outage on the day it was due, you're not without options, though it's not as simple as writing in whenever you notice you're late.

Companies House sends a default letter once a filing is overdue, and from the date of that letter you have 28 days to make a representation explaining the exceptional circumstances.

They'll consider it, but there's no guarantee it'll be accepted.

If you're a PSC and can see a deadline coming that you won't make, there's also a faster option: you can request a 14 day extension before the date passes.