Companies House announced that the legal requirements for directors and people with significant control (PSCs) of companies to verify their identities under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 will begin from Tuesday 18 November 2025.
Whilst mandatory verification doesn’t come into force until 18 November 2025, all directors can now voluntarily verify their identity now using the Verify your identity for Companies House service .
All directors and PSCs are encouraged to complete their verification before the deadline of 18 November 2025 and at the earliest opportunity, where possible, to avoid any last-minute stress or inconvenience. On that basis, it is highly recommended that steps are put in place to action this now.
If you are unclear if you need to verify your identity, Companies House have provided helpful guidance which can be found here When you need to verify your identity for Companies House – GOV.UK
Once you have been verified, you will get a unique identifier known as a Companies House personal code. The code is personal to you, not your company or a company you work for. The personal code will be needed to connect your verified identity to Companies House records. This is a legal requirement and will ensure that Companies House know the correct identity is linked to any roles you hold.
It is unclear at this stage how linking the personal code to the company will work in practice however each of the directors should keep their code safe meantime.
Going forward, Companies House advise that the code will be required for various reasons including:
- when filing the confirmation statement – you will need to provide your Companies House personal code as part of your company’s next confirmation statement from 18 November 2025
- if you are appointed as a director
- if you become a person with significant control (PSC)
- if you are currently a director or a PSC – if you are a director of more than one company, you will need to do this for each company.
- if you’re registering a new company, you’ll be asked to provide the Companies House personal code for each director as part of the registration filing
If you, or anyone in your organisation, requires further advice or assistance in this regard, please contact our team.
