Companies House Identity Verification: What Bury Directors Need to Check Before Their Next Confirmation Statement

Mike Jackson FCCA

1 day ago

3 min read

If you're a director or a person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company, you've probably seen references to a Companies House “identity verification deadline” falling in November 2026. The truth is a little more specific than that — and getting it wrong could stop you filing your confirmation statement at all.

Since 18 November 2025, verifying your identity with Companies House has been a legal requirement under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. It applies to every director, every person with significant control, and members of most LLPs, whether the company is brand new or has been trading for decades. The aim is straightforward: make it harder for people to hide behind fake or stolen identities when running a UK company.

Your deadline is tied to your confirmation statement, not a calendar date

Rather than giving every company the same cut-off, Companies House has linked verification to dates you already deal with each year. In practice, that means:

Directors: provide your Companies House personal code when you file your company's next confirmation statement due after 18 November 2025 — for every company you direct.
Directors who are also PSCs: provide your separate PSC verification details within 14 days starting from the day after your confirmation statement date.
PSCs who aren't directors: provide your code within the first 14 days of your birth month.
Overseas companies: confirm every UK-registered director's identity by the anniversary of your UK establishment's registration.

Why mid-November 2026 keeps coming up

Because every company must file a confirmation statement at least once a year, every existing director and PSC will pass through their first post-18-November-2025 filing within twelve months. So in practice, almost everyone needs to be verified by around mid-November 2026, even though no single date is written into the legislation itself. Companies House has estimated that 6 to 7 million people need to complete the process by then, and its own figures published this summer showed only around half of directors, and under half of PSCs, had done so.

Three ways to verify

There's no cost to verify directly with Companies House, and it only needs doing once per person — your verified identity then covers every company role you hold:

GOV.UK One Login — free and online, using a biometric passport, UK photo driving licence, or biometric residence permit.
Bank or building society details — using your National Insurance number and answering security questions, for UK residents.
In person at a Post Office — after starting the process through GOV.UK One Login.
Through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) — an AML-supervised accountant or solicitor verifies you on Companies House's behalf, often the simplest route for directors without a biometric passport or UK driving licence, or those based overseas.

What happens if you miss it

A confirmation statement currently can't be filed unless every director's and PSC's verification code is in place, so missing your window risks your company falling behind on its statutory filings. Companies House has said it expects to move from a supportive approach to active enforcement once the transition period closes, and acting as a director without verifying your identity is itself an offence under the Act. Possible consequences on the table include restrictions on further filings, a public marker against the company, and, in serious cases, disqualification.

What we'd suggest

If you haven't verified yet, the simplest first step is checking your company's confirmation statement due date on the Companies House register, since that fixes your own window. For multi-director companies, or anyone without a straightforward UK passport or driving licence, it's worth starting the ACSP route sooner rather than closer to the date, as verification through an accountant can take longer to arrange than the online route. Jackson Lee Accountants, based in Bury, is happy to check confirmation statement dates for clients and talk through whether the ACSP route makes sense for your directors and PSCs.