Identity Verifications Required by Companies House

As a result of changes to company law (the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) 2023), many individuals will soon be required to verify their identity to validate the entries in their company records at Companies House.

The affected individuals will be all directors and persons of significant control (PSCs) in any UK company, or those who are about to become a director or a PSC. PSCs are most usually anyone controlling more than 25% of a company’s shares.

The requirement to verify ID is rolling out over 12 months from 18 November 2025. The date by which any particular director/PSC will need to do this will be the earliest deadline date for any annual Confirmation Statement (CS01) for a company they are involved in, but this date could be brought forward e.g. if a change needs to be made to the individual’s record, e.g. a change of address or a new director appointment.

Some individuals will therefore be affected immediately, while others won’t be until almost a year down the line. To work out when you will be affected, look at the Companies House record for each of your companies and note the ’next statement due by’ date under ‘Confirmation Statement’. You don’t need to wait until then however, you can carry out the ID check at any time before this.

The ID check is a one-off process, at the end of which you will see an 11-character ‘personal code’. This code will be a unique identifier for you personally, and will be used in filings for every company you are connected with. You should keep it safe and only issue it to authorised parties that require it for company filings, e.g. ourselves, if we submit documents for your company.

A new government login, known as “GOV.UK One Login” has been set up and will over time replace other government logins that you may have. ID verification for Companies House can be done through this. See this web page and follow the instructions at the ‘Verify your identity for Companies House’ link just over halfway down the page https://changestoukcompanylaw.campaign.gov.uk/identity-verification/.

Information on what you’ll need in order to use this system is set out here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/verify-your-identity-for-companies-house. You’ll note that there are options where the required ID is not available, including an in-person option at certain Post Offices.

There are no charges to use these verification methods.

You will also note references to using an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) to verify your identity. We have registered as an ACSP so that we can submit documents on clients’ behalf, but we can also verify your identity if you do not wish to use the Companies House systems. There is a charge for our own service however (£50+VAT) as we incur costs with the provider we use, and due to the staff time setting up and processing the checks.

Please note that we can only carry out these checks using an approved electronic system; we are not trained or insured to check documents manually to the standard required by Companies House for this purpose. We will also only be providing these checks for clients of the practice.

The system we are using is provided by the same company that we have been using for all ‘new client’ identity checks for the last 5 years, Amiqus ID. This is the provider recommended by our professional body, ICAS.

Please note that this system will only accept passport ID, so if you don’t have a current passport we won’t be able to check your identity. You are not obliged to use us for this however; if you don’t wish to or can’t use Companies House’s systems you can use the services of any ACSP. The ID check is a one-off process at the end of which your personal code will be issued; it’s this code that will be needed in future. You need not contact the ACSP again; they are however required to retain the evidence of the check for 7 years.

However you obtain your code, if we submit CS01s for any company in which you are a director or a PSC we will need it. We will store the codes securely in our systems and will not pass them on to third parties, other than Companies House, unless authorised to do so by you.

Let us know if you need further information.