Companies House Identity Verification – helping make sure you’re ready
As we move further toward December, there’s been an increasing amount of noise around Companies House identity verification becoming a requirement from today (18th November 2025).
A lot of the messaging may not be too straight forward, so here is an overview to help you understand more about the upcoming changes and ensure you are ready.
To be clear, this legislation change comes from Companies House and is the responsibility of each director or company owner to complete.
This blog is to help remind you of your obligations, and how to use the resources available, so you can share your personal identity codes (PICs) with us to meet your filing deadlines.
What is Companies House Identity Verification?
New identity verification, which is mandatory for all company directors, LLP members, people with significant control (PSCs) and anyone making filings at Companies House. There will also be changes affecting limited partnerships.
The first thing to note is if your confirmation statement is due on or after 18th November, you will be the first impacted by the new process of filing your confirmation statement alongside your personal identity code. Even if your confirmation statement isn’t due till April 2026, you can still get ahead of the game and verify your identity now!
What does Companies House Identity Verification mean for you?
This process must be completed for every director, PSC or LLP member, otherwise you will not be able to complete your company filings (including confirmation statements, adding or removing a director/PSC or forming a company).
There are multiple ways to get verified, with the easiest being going to your Gov.uk account and completing the online process or going to certain Post Offices to verify.
FWD are a registered ACSP (Authorised Corporate Service Provider – registered with Companies House), which means we can carry out the ID verification for you — but it still requires your cooperation and there is a fee for this service. We recommend reading the full guidance on the Gov.uk website first.
We are contacting our clients to keep them informed and prepared during this transitional period, on a phased basis with the focus being with the soonest confirmation statement deadlines.
What is changing – key dates from Companies House:
The purpose of this identity validation is straightforward: to reduce fraud, strengthen corporate transparency, and improve the accuracy of the Companies House register.
- 8 April 2025: Voluntary verification opened
- 18 November 2025: Becomes mandatory for new directors, LLP members and PSCs at appointment/incorporation; a 12-month transition begins for existing ones
- Spring 2026: Compulsory for anyone filing at Companies House; third-party agents must register as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP)
- End of 2026: Transition period ends, and compliance checks begin
Who will the new Companies House ID rules apply to?
– All new and existing directors of UK companies
– All new and existing individual members of LLPs and nominated directors of corporate members
– All new and existing PSCs of companies or LLPs
– Relevant officers of registrable relevant legal entities (“RLEs”) (also known as corporate PSCs)
– Nominated directors of each corporate general partner of a limited partnership
– Individuals filing documents at Companies House, whether for themselves or on behalf of others
The same requirements will also apply to directors of overseas companies with a UK establishment, with some transitional provisions to ease the process. There are also extra details if you’re a PSC but not a director of the same company, or if you become a PSC after 18 November 2025. Please check the Gov.uk website for further details on this.
We hope this has helped you understand your obligations ahead of the verification changes.
Please note: It’s important to be aware of the changes – but please note that this is a director/company responsibility, not something we will be handling automatically for clients.