UK companies, are you ready? Big changes to identity checks

From 18 November 2025, if you are a company director or a person with significant control (“PSC”), you must verify your identity at Companies House by a specific due date. Companies House will be updated from 18 November 2025 to show the due dates for each role you hold.

This new identity verification process aims to help deter those wishing to use companies for illegal purposes.

If you are a director

You will need to provide your Companies House personal code as part of your company’s next confirmation statement.

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 are a PSC

All PSCs must verify their identity and provide their Companies House personal code. The period for doing this depends on your situation:

1. If you’re a director and a PSC of the same company, you will need to provide your personal code separately for each role. For example:

• as a director, you must provide your personal code in the company’s next confirmation statement.
• as a PSC, you must provide your personal code using a separate service within 14 days of your company’s next confirmation statement date. This service will be available when the requirement comes into force on 18 November 2025.

2.     If you’re a PSC but not a director of the same company, you must provide your personal code within the first 14 days of your birth month. For example, if your date of birth is 15 March, your 14-day period will begin on 1 March.

3. If you become a PSC after 18 November 2025, you can provide your personal code when you are first added to the Companies House register, or within 14 days of being added.

Our previous article from April 2025 gives an overview of the upcoming identity verification changes at Companies House and explains:

• who needs to verify their identification;
• how to verify your identification;
• when to verify your identification;
• what happens when you verify your identification; and
• what happens if you do not verify your identification.

Although identity verification isn’t required until 18 November 2025, it will soon be mandatory, so it is sensible to plan and get ahead of this requirement, to help avoid any last-minute issues, e.g., ensuring you have the necessary identity documents.

Companies House has confirmed that they will introduce identity verification at a later date for:

• people who file at Companies House;
• limited partnerships;
• corporate directors of companies;
• corporate members of limited liability partnerships (LLPs); and
• officers of corporate PSCs.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Corporate Team.