The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act has expanded Companies House powers and created identity-verification requirements for directors, people with significant control and many filers. Implementation is staged rather than instantaneous.
The register has spent its whole existence accepting what it was given. It is now being asked to check.
The business thought
The direction is toward higher-friction but higher-trust company data. Legitimate businesses gain from better counterparty information, which is worth something to anyone who has ever tried to establish whether a new supplier is real.
Founders and agents will need more disciplined records and onboarding in exchange. That is a fair trade, but it is a trade.
The practical watch
Confirm who is responsible for filings, beneficial-ownership records and identity verification. In small companies this is frequently nobody, right up until it is urgently someone.
Do not confuse Royal Assent with every provision being immediately operational. Staged commencement is where most of the confusion will come from over the next two years.
Related reading
- Identity verification is now the law: what every UK founder must do before the 2026 deadline
- Digital markets and consumer enforcement became a board-level issue
- The UK chose a regulator-led, principles-based approach to AI
Source: Companies House identity-verification factsheet.