Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act 2023 – Companies House Confirms Start Date for Mandatory Identity Verification & Abolition of Certain Statutory Registers

Companies House has confirmed that mandatory identity verification (IDV) for directors and persons with significant control (PSCs) will begin on 18th November 2025. It has also confirmed that the abolition of certain statutory company registers will take effect from 18th November 2025.

IDV

The IDV process is a key change to UK company law and introduced as part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. IDV currently operates on a voluntary basis, but mandatory IDV is now confirmed as coming into force from 18th November 2025.

From 18th November 2025:

• new directors will need to verify their identity before being appointed, both to an existing company or on incorporation of a new company;
• existing directors will need to confirm they have verified their identity when the next annual confirmation statement for the company is filed after 18th November 2025 (over a 12-month transitional period);
• any individual being registered as a new PSC will have to confirm that they have verified their identity within a 14-day period starting on the date of their PSC registration;
• any individual already registered as a PSC, who is also a director of the company, will have to confirm that they have verified their identity within a 14-day period starting from the date the first annual confirmation statement to be submitted by the company after 18 November falls due; and
• any individual already registered as a PSC who is not also a director of the company that they control will have to confirm that they have verified their identity within a 14-day period starting from the first day of their month of birth – for example if their date of birth is 22 January 1980, the 14-day period will start on 1 January 2026. 

From 18th November, directors and PSCs will be able to check the register at Companies House to see their individual due dates for verification.

Once successfully verified, individuals will get a unique identifier known as a Companies House personal code. After 18th November 2025, newly appointed directors will need to provide this code as part of the appointment filing process. Current directors or PSCs will need to use their personal code to enable Companies House to connect their verified identity to their Companies House records.

The consequences for failure to verify are significant. Any individual who acts as a director without having had their identity verified, and the company (and its directors) for which they act, will be committing an offence. The validity of any acts carried out by that individual as a director however will not be affected. Directors who act without verification will be liable to be disqualified and there may be potential criminal and civil penalties. PSC consequences for non-compliance include criminal proceedings, civil penalties, rejection of new company registrations, restriction on statutory filing capabilities and public annotation of “unverified” status on the register.

Any person who is not verified will be unable to be appointed as a director for a company seeking to incorporate. It will also be an offence for any person to provide misleading, false or deceptive information without reasonable excuse and there is a new aggravated criminal offence for knowingly providing misleading, false or deceptive information. In both cases this would include any statement made in relation to identity verification.

Companies House has more information available here.

Changes to Statutory Registers

From 18th November 2025 companies will not be required to create or maintain:

• a register of directors;
• a register of directors' residential addresses;
• a register of secretaries; or
• a register of persons with significant control.

The information that is currently recorded in these registers will still need to be provided to Companies House. The information will be maintained at and by Companies House on the central register and will be automatically updated when information is filed for example, about a new director. This will be the case for all existing statutory registers except the register of members. 

Companies that have elected to keep the register of members at Companies House on the central register, can no longer do so. The register of members must be maintained internally as a local register. Any private company that has made such an election, must prepare to create and maintain their own register of members from 18th November 2025.

Changes and updates to templates

Now that there is a confirmed start date both for the mandatory identity verification regime and the changes to the statutory registers, existing templates will be updated and new templates will be added to our portfolio in advance of the November date.