Some changes to company law arrive with a bang. This one arrived quietly, and then started blocking people from doing the one thing every founder has always taken for granted: registering their own company. Since 18 November 2025, you cannot incorporate a company in the UK, or be appointed as a director, until you have proved who you are. Identity verification at Companies House is no longer a nice idea for the future. It is the law now, and for existing company owners a hard deadline is coming into view in 2026.
This is the biggest shake-up to the UK company register in a generation, brought in by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. The intent is straightforward: make it harder to hide behind a fake or borrowed name on the register. The practical effect, if you are starting or running a business, is a new step you cannot skip and a deadline you do not want to miss.
What has actually changed, and when
The rollout runs in stages. From 18 November 2025, identity verification became mandatory for all new incorporations and all new director and PSC appointments. In plain terms, a company or an appointment is not valid until the individual behind it has verified and been issued a personal code.
That same date started a 12-month transition for the millions of people who are already directors or people with significant control (PSCs). They must verify as part of their next confirmation statement filed on or after that date, and no later than the end of the transition window, which lands around 18 November 2026. Your true personal deadline is tied to your company’s confirmation statement date, so it is worth knowing exactly when yours falls rather than assuming you have until the very end. Through 2026, Companies House also begins restricting who is allowed to file documents to verified individuals, and starts enforcement once the transition closes.
Who has to do it
Every director, every PSC and every member of an LLP, new and existing. This is the point most people get wrong: it is not just a hoop for new companies. If you incorporated years ago and have run the same limited company ever since, you are in scope too. It also catches PSCs who are not on the board, for example a majority shareholder who controls the company but was never made a director. Later phases will extend verification to the agents who file on your behalf.
How to verify
There are three routes, and for most founders the first is a ten-minute job:
- GOV.UK One Login, done yourself with a biometric passport or a UK photo driving licence. This is the direct, digital route.
- In person at the Post Office, for anyone who cannot complete the check digitally.
- Through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), a regulated accountant, solicitor or formation agent who verifies you and files it for you. Expect a market rate of roughly £50 to £150 per director for this convenience.
Whichever route you take, you come away with a single unique personal code. It stays with you and is reused across every company and every role you hold, so you verify once as a person, not once per company. The official guidance sits on the Companies House campaign site, Changes to UK company law: identity verification, and in the wider GOV.UK collection.
What it means if you are starting or running a business
If you are incorporating now, build verification into your launch checklist alongside the company name and the bank account. You, and any co-founder who will be a director or a PSC, cannot form the company without it. Leave it out and your incorporation simply will not go through.
If you already run a limited company, the trap is complacency. It is easy to file it under “sometime before November” and then find yourself blocked from making a filing at exactly the wrong moment, mid-funding round, mid-sale, or when a lender wants clean, current records. Verifying early removes that risk for the price of ten minutes.
Five things to do this month
- Verify now through GOV.UK One Login, passport or driving licence to hand, rather than waiting for the deadline crush.
- Record your personal code somewhere secure. You will quote it on filings.
- Check every director and PSC in your company has verified, not just yourself.
- Find your confirmation statement date. That is your real deadline within the transition window.
- Line up an ACSP early if verifying yourself is awkward, for example if you have no UK photo ID or you are overseas.
The cost of ignoring it
Failing to verify when required is an offence under the Act. Companies House is clear that it can impose a financial penalty and restrict your ability to file or to start new companies. Legal commentators note that the wider consequences can escalate to civil penalties reported at up to £10,000, director disqualification and, in serious cases, prosecution, with the risk of a company being struck off. Those upper figures come from professional commentary rather than a single published Companies House tariff, but the direction of travel is not subtle: this is a requirement with teeth.
None of this is difficult. It is simply new, and the businesses that get caught out will be the ones that treated a fixed legal deadline as an optional errand. Do it early, keep your code safe, and make sure everyone with their name on the company has done the same. If you would like a hand working out who in your business needs to verify and by when, that is exactly the kind of unglamorous, important detail we help founders get right.