As part of the new requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), Companies House have introduced identity verification for all company directors, PSCs (People with Significant Control), and those filing on behalf of a company.https://www.gov.uk/guidance/verifying-your-identity-for-companies-house . These changes aim to improve transparency and reduce fraud. Please be aware that this will become mandatory in Autumn 2025.
When you have been successfully verified, you’ll get a unique identifier known as a Companies House personal code, the code is personal to you, not your company or a company you work for.
From Autumn 2025, you’ll need the code to action the following with Companies House;
• when you file your confirmation statement
• if you are appointed as a director
• if you become a person with significant control (PSC)
If you are currently a director or a PSC, you’ll need to use your Companies House personal code to connect your verified identity to our records, this is a legal requirement and will ensure that Companies House know the correct identity is linked to any roles you hold.
We’re pleased to let you know that Stopfords is registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). This means we can complete the identity verification process on your behalf, ensuring full compliance with the new regulations.
What You Need to Know:
• We will securely verify your identity using approved methods.
• We will be required to obtain a clear copy of your valid Driving Licence with your correct home address.
• This is a one-time process unless your details change, or re-verification is triggered (e.g. suspected fraud).
• Verified individuals will be marked as such on the Companies House register.
• We’ll retain the necessary records in line with the legal requirements.
To cover the administrative and compliance work involved, we will be charging a fixed fee of £50 + VAT per identity verification, this includes:
• Secure identity verification using approved Companies House methods.
• Administration and record-keeping required by law.
• Support from our team if you have any questions.
If this is something that you would like Stopfords to complete on your behalf, please contact Jess Wilson – jessica@stopfords.co.uk 01623 420269.
Please note, you can complete this verification process yourself with Companies House. If you do complete this process yourself, please could you provide Jess Wilson (jessica@stopfords.co.uk) with your unique identifier code as we do require this on file for future submissions we make for your company.
