Bulk Director ID Verification for UK Companies: How It Works and Who Needs It (2026 Guide)

If your business has several directors, or you're an accountant or company secretary looking after multiple clients, you already know that chasing identity verification one person at a time is a headache. Deadlines are tight, people are busy, and here's the sting in the tail: one unverified director can block your entire company from filing its confirmation statement - holding up every other director too, even the ones who've already verified.

That's exactly the problem bulk director ID verification solves. This guide explains what it is, who needs it, and how to get dozens of people verified quickly and reliably - without managing each verification separately.



directorverifications.com is an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) authorised by Companies House in the UK to provide identity verification to companies and individuals. That authorisation gives us direct access to the Companies House ACSP portal, so we can verify each of your people and upload their verified ID details to Companies House on your behalf - quickly, in bulk, and without any of the hurdles of the government's own system.

Why Bulk Verification Has Become a Real Problem in 2026

Identity verification at Companies House is now the law under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA). It became mandatory for UK company directors, PSCs and LLP members on 18 November 2025, with existing individuals given a 12-month transition period to comply. The same duty is being extended to limited partnership partners during 2026. In short, almost everyone named on the Companies House register will need a personal code.

For a company with one or two directors, that's straightforward. But for a business with multiple directors - or an accountant managing dozens of client companies - the scale becomes unmanageable fast. And because verification is enforced through the confirmation statement, a single unverified director in scope can stop the whole company's statement being filed. That's a compliance risk for the company and every officer on it.

Bulk director ID verification exists to remove that risk: many people verified through one coordinated process, quickly and reliably, with nobody falling through the cracks.

Who Actually Needs Bulk Director ID Verification?

Bulk verification isn't just for large corporations. It's relevant for a much wider group than most people realise:

•       Companies with multiple directors - any business with three or more directors, where coordinating verifications individually becomes a project in itself.

•       Accountants and bookkeepers - juggling confirmation statement deadlines across many client companies at once.

•       Company secretaries - responsible for keeping filings on track across a portfolio of businesses.

•       Company formation agents - onboarding new companies where every director must be verified before incorporation can proceed.

•       Law firms and solicitors - advising business clients on ECCTA compliance across their whole client base.

•       Investment funds and limited partnerships - verifying multiple general partners at once (see our dedicated guide to Limited Partnership partner ID verification).

As a rule of thumb: if you're responsible for more than two or three verifications at any one time, bulk verification is the right approach.

How Bulk Director ID Verification Works at Directorverifications.com

The process is designed to be simple for the person coordinating the verifications, and just as simple for each individual being verified.

1.    Contact us with your requirements. Tell us how many directors, PSCs or partners you need verified, and we'll confirm the process and volume pricing for your numbers.

2.    Each person receives a secure verification link. Every individual gets their own secure link by email. There's nothing to download, no GOV.UK One Login account, and no app to install.

3.    They scan their ID and face - in 1 to 2 minutes. Each person scans their passport using the camera on their smartphone, laptop or desktop PC, followed by a quick face scan. Under two minutes per person.

4.    AI verification, with human backup. Our verification partner's enterprise-grade AI checks each document in seconds. On the rare occasion the AI needs support, a trained reviewer steps in, so verifications don't get stuck.

5.    We submit to Companies House on your behalf. Once verified, we upload each person's details through the Companies House ACSP portal.

6.    Personal codes delivered directly. Companies House emails each individual their unique 11-character personal code straight to their own inbox, ready to use for filings. We are not sent these codes and do not store them.

Why the Companies House / GOV.UK Route is so Painful

Let's be blunt: the government's own verification service is not good, and at scale it becomes a real liability. To use it, every single person must:

•       Create their own GOV.UK One Login account.

•       Be told to download the GOV.UK ID Check app onto an NFC-enabled smartphone.

•       Complete the whole process alone, with no coordinated way for an adviser to manage several people at once.

Worst of all, the system often fails to verify people - and when it does, we hear that it locks them out of GOV.UK One Login for an indeterminate, and very lengthy, period, with no quick way back in. For a company facing a confirmation-statement deadline, one locked-out director can jeopardise the whole filing.

By contrast, directorverifications.com - as an ACSP with direct access to the Companies House ACSP portal - gives you one coordinated process and one point of contact, no GOV.UK One Login, and no app to download, with human backup when needed and reliable handling of non-UK documents. It is simply a far simpler and easier process.

*(Tip for the web page: present this as a two-column comparison table - it's clear for readers and can win a featured snippet in Google.)*

For a fuller picture of the pitfalls of the government route, see our guide on what to do if GOV.UK One Login fails to verify your identity.

Non-British Directors: Where the Government System Really Falls Down

This is where the GOV.UK route fails most often. If any of the directors or PSCs in your group are from overseas, the government's system, from what we hear, usually rejects all non-British ID documentation - and then locks the person out. These are exactly the people who are hardest to chase for a second attempt, and there often isn't a second attempt to be had.

Here's the frustrating part: Companies House officially states that it accepts all of the following documents -

•       Biometric or machine-readable passport

•       Irish passport card

•       UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and EU photocard driving licence (full or provisional)

•       Identity card with biometric information from the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein

•       UK biometric residence permit (BRP)

•       UK biometric residence card (BRC)

•       UK Frontier Worker permit

but in practice its system frequently fails to verify these documents when they are non-British. directorverifications.com accepts every document on this list and, through our verification partner's state-of-the-art AI technology, reliably reads and validates non-British documents that the government app chokes on.

Crucially, once the Companies House website has failed to verify someone's ID and locked them out, they have literally no option but to use an ACSP such as directorverifications.com - which is a far simpler and easier route anyway, because we don't require a GOV.UK One Login and we don't ask anyone to download an app. For more detail, see our guide to ID verification for non-British passport holders.

Built For Accountants, Agents And Company Secretaries

If you manage compliance for other businesses, bulk verification is more than a convenience - it protects your clients' filing deadlines and your reputation. With directorverifications.com you get a single coordinated process instead of dozens of separate email chains, one invoice instead of many, and a reliable way to clear an entire client's board in one go. It's an easy value-add to offer clients, and it means you're never the reason a confirmation statement is late.

Because limited partnerships must now file through an ACSP, funds and LPs in particular benefit from having their verification and filing handled together - see the Limited Partnership guide for the specifics.

Need it fast? Same-Day Bulk Verification

Up against a filing deadline? Our fast-track service guarantees same-day completion for orders placed and paid before 4pm on a working weekday - and it's available for bulk orders too, so a tight deadline doesn't have to mean a missed filing.

Pricing

Our standard service is £24.99 per person (24–48 hour turnaround, often quicker) and the fast-track same-day service is £39.99 per person. For larger bulk orders, contact us to discuss your requirements.

Get Your Bulk Verification Done Today

Whether you're an accountant managing client deadlines, a company secretary keeping filings on track, or a business with several directors to verify, directorverifications.com - an ACSP authorised by Companies House, with direct access to the ACSP portal - makes bulk director ID verification straightforward, fast and reliable. No GOV.UK One Login. No app. No chasing individuals one by one.

Start your bulk verification - £24.99 per person, or contact us to discuss your requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions