Companies House ID Verification Enters Enforcement Countdown
Companies House identity verification under ECCTA is now compulsory for new appointments, with an estimated 6 to 7 million existing directors and PSCs facing an 18 November 2026 deadline.
What Changed
Since 18 November 2025, Companies House has required mandatory identity verification under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA). Every newly appointed director, individual LLP member, and person with significant control (PSC) must now verify identity before acting, and verification is a compulsory part of incorporation. Existing officeholders sit inside a 12-month transition running to 18 November 2026, verifying at the point they file their next annual confirmation statement. Individuals can verify directly with Companies House or through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) supervised for anti-money laundering. Companies House has signalled that active compliance and enforcement against unverified individuals will begin in the latter part of 2026.
Who It Affects
Every UK-registered company and LLP, plus the directors, members, and PSCs behind them. Company formation agents, accountancy and legal firms, and corporate secretarial providers that file on behalf of clients must register as ACSPs to keep filing. Companies House estimates 6 to 7 million individuals need to verify before the transition closes. That figure reframes verification from a paperwork task into a national identity-assurance exercise with a hard cutoff, and slow movers will collide with enforcement.
What to Do
Map every in-scope director, member, and PSC across your corporate structure now and confirm who has already verified. Align verification with each entity's next confirmation-statement date rather than waiting for November. Firms filing on behalf of clients should complete ACSP registration and confirm AML supervision is current. Treat identity checks as document-plus-liveness evidence you can reproduce on request, and keep an audit-ready record of when and how each individual was verified, since enforcement activity is expected to begin before year-end.
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