Perspectives · United Kingdom
Companies House identity verification turns the company register into a live control
Identity verification became a legal requirement at Companies House on 18 November 2025, beginning a 12-month transition rather than creating one universal deadline. Directors link their personal code through each company's confirmation statement, while people with significant control follow separate role-based windows. In 2026, the challenge is portfolio control, not one-off identity checking. This perspective is general information, not legal advice.
The change
Identity is now part of holding office
The reform changes the logic of the UK company register. A director or PSC is no longer only a name attached to a filing. The person must verify their identity and then connect that verified identity to the relevant company and role through a Companies House personal code.
Verification is personal, but compliance is relational. The same individual may sit on ten boards, be a PSC of two companies and act through different service providers. The underlying identity may be verified once; the register still needs the correct code supplied in the correct context.
The calendar
One transition creates many due dates
For existing directors, the code is provided as part of each company's next confirmation statement during the transition. A director of several companies must complete that step for each company. New incorporations and appointments bring the code into the filing process from the outset.
PSC timing is different. Companies House uses 14-day windows that depend on the person's situation, including whether the PSC is also a director and when the relevant confirmation statement or birth month falls. A person who is both director and PSC must provide the code separately for each role.
The portfolio problem
A person is not a spreadsheet row
A flat officers list cannot reliably express the new control. It may show that Jane Smith is a director, but not that she is verified, that her code has been linked to Company A, that Company B's confirmation statement is due next month, and that her separate PSC window for Company C has not opened yet.
The data model needs at least four connected objects: person, entity, role and obligation. That structure also makes offboarding safer. When a director resigns, the team can see which other appointments remain, which filings are still open and which evidence must be retained.
The control
Track completion without spreading the personal code
The control objective is not to copy a sensitive code into every tracker. It is to know that verification has occurred, who holds the code, which company-role links have been completed, what evidence supports the status and which filing triggers the next action.
Access should be limited. A portfolio team may need to see "verified and linked" without seeing the code itself. Service providers need clear responsibility for submission, and the company needs an audit trail showing that the action was completed rather than an email saying it probably was.
In Alethia
Connect the person, role, entity and filing
Alethia's governed register connects entities, officers, ownership, documents and compliance. That is the right shape for identity-verification work: one person record linked to each appointment, with the relevant task and evidence attached to the entity that must file.
The result is not a second copy of Companies House. It is the portfolio control around it. Teams can see which appointments exist, which confirmation statements are approaching and where a verification or role-linking step remains incomplete, while keeping sensitive information within scoped access controls.
Questions
Companies House identity verification, answered
Was 18 November 2025 the deadline for every existing director and PSC?
No. It was the start of a 12-month transition. The due date depends on the role and the relevant company event or PSC window.
Does a director need a different personal code for every company?
The person receives a Companies House personal code after verification, but must provide it for each company where they are a director. The compliance action repeats even though the identity does not.
What if the same person is both a director and a PSC?
Companies House requires the code to be provided separately for each role: through the confirmation statement for the directorship and through the PSC service within the applicable 14-day period.
Make every appointment a controlled relationship
Keep the person, company, role, due date and evidence connected, without turning a sensitive personal code into another uncontrolled spreadsheet field.