Companies House confirms identity verification rollout from 18 November 2025

Companies House has issued a press release reminding Companies about the phasing-in of identity verification over 12 months, to make things simpler for companies and business owners.  It has made corresponding updates to its ‘Verifying your identity for Companies House’ and ‘When you need to verify your identity for Companies House’ web pages.  From Tuesday 18^th November 2025, legal requirements for directors and people with significant control (PSCs) of companies to verify their identities will begin.

From 18^th November 2025:

• new directors will need to verify their identity to incorporate a company or be appointed to an existing company;
• existing directors will need to confirm they have verified their identity at the same time as they file their next annual confirmation statement, during a 12-month transition period; and
• existing PSCs will need to verify their identity in line with an appointed day within 12 months of the commencement of mandatory identity verification on 18 November.

Companies House is phasing in identity verification over 12 months to provide the best support to all companies and individuals in scope of this new requirement. It estimates that 6 to 7 million individuals will need to verify their identity by mid-November 2026.  The press release comments on how to verify, helping companies to verify, and the background to the requirements, and contains a list of useful links.

The ‘Verifying your identity for Companies House’ web page includes an updated section for PSCs.  The ‘When you need to verify your identity for Companies House’ web page is updated merely to confirm that Identity verification will be a mandatory requirement from 18 November 2025.