Companies House ID Verification: Where Things Actually Stand Now

Donald Duck was once a real, registered director of a UK company. This reform is why that can't happen anymore.

Why this reform exists, in one paragraph

Until recently, Companies House didn't verify anything you told it. You could register as a director under almost any name, and nobody checked. This wasn't theoretical: journalists and transparency campaigners have documented directors on the official UK register named “Donald Duck,” “Adolf Tooth Fairy Hitler,” and “Holy Jesus Christ” — the last one giving his occupation as “Creator,” his nationality as “Angelic,” and his country of residence as “Heaven.” These weren't hacked records. They were accepted, unchallenged, because Companies House's job was historically to receive information, not verify it. That gap is exactly what the current reform closes.

Where things stand today

New directors and PSCs

Identity verification has been mandatory since 18 November 2025. No verification, no appointment. Unchanged since our last piece.

Existing directors and PSCs

Still in the transition window, but it's closing. The most consistent guidance points to existing directors needing to verify by around 18 November 2026 — in practice, this usually lands at your company's next confirmation statement. If you haven't verified yet, that's now roughly three months away, not the distant deadline it might have felt like earlier in the year.

Third-party agents (accountants, solicitors) needing ACSP registration to file on clients' behalf

This is the part that's genuinely moved. Earlier guidance had this pushed back to “no earlier than November 2026.” More recent and more consistent sources — including ICAEW's own guidance — now point to this having taken effect around spring 2026. Given where we are now, this requirement is likely already live. If your accountant or solicitor handles your Companies House filings and hasn't mentioned their ACSP status, it's worth asking directly.

Where Consulting Hive stands

We're a registered Authorised Corporate Service Provider, so this doesn't change anything about how we can support you — we can still file on your behalf and carry out verification as your agent.

The honest caveat

This is an area where guidance has shifted more than once already in a matter of months, and different sources have quoted slightly different dates for the same milestones. We've based this update on the most recent, most consistent guidance available as of writing — but if you're reading this later in the year, it's worth a quick check that nothing's moved again. That's not a criticism of the process; rolling out identity checks across millions of company records was never going to be a single clean date.

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Not sure exactly where you stand? Try our 2-minute self-check tool → https://www.consulting-hive.com/comp-house-id-verifi

Still unsure after that, or want it handled for you? That's a five-minute conversation worth having now rather than at your next confirmation statement deadline. 

Companies House  •  ACSP  •  Corporate Compliance  •  UK Business  •  Chartered Accountant  •  Identity Verification