As part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 to combat economic crime, one of the main changes to the company law is the requirement of individuals to verify their identity.
From 8 April 2025 individuals have been able to voluntarily verify their identity. Mandatory verification for new appointments and incorporations will commence from 18 November 2025. From this date all existing directors and PSCs will have a 12-month transition period to verify their identity.
Who needs to verify their identity?
You will need to provide your Companies House personal code as part of your company’s next confirmation statement.
Anyone setting up, owning, running, or controlling a company in the UK will need to verify their identity and prove they are who they say they are:
- Director
- The equivalent of a director – this includes members, general partners and managing officers
- A person with significant control (PSC)
- An Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) – also known as a Companies House authorised agent.
More than six million people will be required to verify their identity over a period of 12 months.
After this period, Companies House will begin enforcement action for non-compliance, which will be a criminal offence.
If you are both a director and a PSC of the same company
You will need to provide your personal code separately for each role.
As director, you must provide the code in the company’s confirmation statement.
As a PSC, you must provide it using a separate service within 14 days of your company’s confirmation statement date. This service will be available when the requirement comes into force on 18 November 2025.
If you are 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 22 January, your 14-day period will begin on 1 January.
There are THREE methods to verify one’s identity compliant with Companies House requirements:
Using GOV.UK ID Check App
You can verify yourself online with GOV.UK if you have one of the following types of photo ID, and have set up a GOV.UK One Login account:
- biometric passport from any country
- UK photo driving licence (full or provisional)
- UK biometric residence permit (BRP)
- UK biometric residence card (BRC)
- UK Frontier Worker permit (FWP)
All UK passports issued after 2006 are biometric.
You will need:
- your current address, and the year you moved in
- access to a phone with a working camera
If you are using an iPhone, it must be running iOS 14 or higher and be either:
- an iPhone 6s or newer if your photo ID is a UK driving licence
- an iPhone 7 or newer if you are using any other type of photo ID
For an Android phone (for example, Samsung or Google Pixel), it must be running Android 10 or higher.
Personally at a Post Office
You will be asked to:
- select a local Post Office that is eligible to provide identity verification service for public
- enter details from your photo ID on GOV.UK
- you will receive a Post Office Customer Letter with a deadline to attend your identity verification in person
- if you do not attend the Post Office by the deadline in your Customer Letter, you will need to re-start the application process
- at the Post Office, the agent will take photographs of your ID document and you
- you will receive an email confirmation once your identity has been verified, which may take a few days
You need one of the following types of photo ID:
- national identity photocard from an EU country, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein
- UK passport
- non-UK passport
- UK photocard driving licence
- European Union (EU) photocard driving licence
Your verified identity will be connected to your GOV.UK One Login. If other people use the same email address as you to access GOV.UK One Login, they will need to create their own using a different email address. An email address can only be used once to verify an identity.
Verifying your identity using the two methods above is free of charge.
Using an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP)
If you do not wish to use the two methods above and would prefer that Menzies LLP verifying your identity, we can do so as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP).
To note, Menzies LLP will exclusively use identification document validation technology (IDVT) that can validate the cryptographic features of the ID document. Identity verification in person will not be provided.
To process your identity verification you must provide us with:
- 2 documents from group A; OR
- 1 document from group A and 1 document from group B
If you do not live in the UK, you must provide at least one government issued document.
Group A documents you can provide are:
- passport or Irish passport card – these can be up to 18 months expired
- identity card with biometric information from the EU, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein
- UK biometric residence permit (BRP) – these can be up to 18 months expired
- UK biometric residence card (BRC)
- UK accredited PASS card
- UK or EU driver digital tachograph card
- UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and EU photocard driving licence (full or provisional)
- UK HM Forces ID Card
- UK HM Armed Forces Veteran Card
- UK Frontier Worker permit
- photographic work permit (government issued)
- photographic immigration document
- photographic visa
- UK, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man firearms licence
- another type of photographic ID – such as a National Identity Card (Pakistan), crew member certificate (South Africa), or Permanent Resident Card (USA)
Group B documents you can provide are:
- birth or adoption certificate
- marriage or civil partnership certificate
- non-photographic immigration document
- non-photographic visa
- non-photographic work permit
- bank or building society statement
- UK local authority or social housing rental agreement – this must be for the person’s current address
- mortgage statement – this must be for the person’s current address
- UK council tax statement – this must be for the person’s current address
- utility bill – this must be for the person’s current address
You will not need to provide a document reference number, expiry date, or country of issue for documents from group B.
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