Identity verification is now a Companies House filing gate

The record

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023, according to the Act's own enacted text. Companies House phased in the identity verification the Act introduces rather than switching it on at once. Its own rollout guidance, retrieved 16 September 2026, states that identity verification is now a legal requirement and that a person who was already a PSC before 18 November 2025 had to provide a Companies House personal code within a window tied to their birth month, while a person who became a PSC after that date can do so within 14 days of being added to the register.

The same guidance states that verification for people who file at Companies House on a company's behalf, for limited partnerships, and for corporate directors and corporate PSC officers, is being introduced at a later date, meaning the 2023 Act's identity checks are not yet complete across every category the Act covers.

What the documents establish

The Act itself is the statutory authority; Companies House's guidance is the regulator's own account of how and when it is applying that authority in practice, and the two move at different speeds. Royal Assent in October 2023 created the legal power; the guidance's own dates show the specific director and PSC verification requirement did not become binding until 18 November 2025, roughly two years later, and other categories the Act names remain unimplemented as the guidance itself states. A description that treats the 2023 Act as having made verification mandatory from 2023 would overstate what the guidance says was actually in force on any given date since.

The operating read

Editorially, a founder registering directors or PSCs should check Companies House's own current rollout guidance for the category in question, rather than relying on the Act's passage date, because the guidance is what determines whether a filing will actually be accepted on a given day. Since the guidance states Companies House will not accept a confirmation statement until all directors have verified their identity, a lapsed or overlooked verification can now block a routine filing that has nothing to do with identity itself, with the accompanying fine and strike-off risk that already attaches to a late confirmation statement.

What to check before you decide

Before assuming an identity verification requirement applies, or does not apply, to a specific role, check the following.

• Does Companies House's current guidance list the specific role, director, PSC, filer, or corporate officer, as already subject to verification, or as scheduled for a later date?
• Has each individual director or PSC actually completed verification and obtained a Companies House personal code before the company's next confirmation statement is due?
• Is the guidance being read as retrieved on a specific date, given that Companies House states its own rollout continues to change?

The Act created the power in October 2023; Companies House's own guidance is the record of when each part of it actually took effect. The two dates are not the same, and only the guidance answers whether a given filing will be accepted today.