Companies House has begun contacting directors and any person with significant control (PSCs) of a company who have not verified their ID, and anyone receiving a notification needs to know what to do to complete these checks before they reach their deadline.
You will need to use a personal code that you get after verifying your identity, either directly through GOV.UK One Login or with an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). Codes obtained using GOV.UK One Login can be viewed by signing into the relevant Companies House account, while a code following verification by an ACSP is sent to the email address that the ACSP supplied.
Someone who is both a director and a PSC of the same company only needs to verify their identity once and will use the same personal code for both roles. But you must make sure you use the code for each role separately.
What is my personal code?
Your personal code is an 11-character combination of letters and numbers and you use it to confirm you’re verified and to link your identity to each relevant company role. Verifying your ID became mandatory on November 18, 2025, with deadlines phased in for existing directors and PSCs over the transition period.
If you’ve already verified your identity using GOV.UK One Login, you should be able to access your code by signing in to Companies House with the same email address and selecting ‘Manage account’. If you did this after July 8, 2026, Companies House should also have sent the code to you by email, so it would be worth checking your inbox.
If an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), like your accountant, verified your identity, Companies House will have sent the code to the email address the ACSP supplied. If you can’t find it, contact the ACSP to check which email address was used. Either way, if you haven’t verified your identity yet with Companies House, you should get this done as soon as you can and before the deadline that applies to your role.
What happens if my details aren’t correct?
If you’ve tried to use your personal code to confirm your verified identity for a director or PSC role but haven’t been able to, it may be because the details linked to your code don’t match those held on the Companies House register.
For example, if your date of birth is incorrect on the Companies House records, but correct on the details linked to your personal code, you won’t be able to complete the identity-verification requirement until the Companies House record has been corrected and the change processed. You can find out how to correct your date of birth with Companies House online.
You should also check you’ve entered the personal code correctly. It sounds obvious, but it’s easy to make a mistake. The code contains 11 letters and numbers and may be displayed with hyphens to make it easier to read. The hyphens aren’t part of the 11-character code, so if the service rejects the formatted version, enter only the letters and numbers without hyphens or spaces.
We can help you meet your obligations
If you have received a message from Companies House and you need help to deal with your ID verification, then please get in touch and we would be happy to give you the guidance you need.