Since November 2025, UK company directors have had to verify their IDs and submit their 11-character personal code to Companies House. What nobody seems to realise is that PSCs also have to submit their 11-character personal code — separately, on a different date, through a different service.
If you own and run your own company you are usually both director and PSC of it. That means one person, one code, but two submissions must be made to Companies House. And Companies House will not let you make both submissions at the same time, which would obviously be the most logical, straightforward and easiest approach. This is an absurd piece of red tape, and if you are reading this because you're trying to work out what on earth you're supposed to do, you are not being slow — the Companies House system is genuinely difficult and confusing.
The rules changed on 18 November 2025. Anyone who was already a director or a PSC on that date has been given twelve months to catch up, and that run-in ends on 18 November 2026. There is nothing to be gained by leaving it, and a great deal to lose: if the government's own service refuses to verify you once, that is the end of it. You do not get to try again, and you are locked out of GOV.UK One Login for weeks or months. More on that below, because almost nobody is told it.
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What is a PSC, and does a PSC need identity verification?
PSC stands for Person with Significant Control. It's Companies House's term for somebody who owns or controls a company, as opposed to somebody who runs it. A director could run and/or oversee the company; but equally, a director does not necessarily have to own any shares in the company.
You are normally a PSC if any one of these is true:
- you hold more than 25% of the shares;
- you hold more than 25% of the voting rights;
- you can appoint or remove most of the board;
- you otherwise have significant influence or control over the company.
Your company's PSCs are already listed on the public register, so you can look yours up.
And yes — a PSC has to verify their ID, exactly as a director does. Same process, same two routes to verify, and the same type of 11-character personal code at the end of it. What differs is how and when that code is submitted.
Which applies to you
- Director only — for example a salaried managing director with no shares. Or a director who owns less than 25% of the shares. One submission of their 11-character personal code is required, in the company's annual confirmation statement. If there's more than one director, each one submits their own code.
- PSC only, not a director — for example somebody who owns 60% but leaves others to run the company. Or, someone who owns some shares and is also involved in the company but chooses not to be a director of it. One submission of their 11-character personal code, submitted through the separate Companies House service for PSCs — it's called "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" — inside their own 14-day submission window. If you're not a director of the company, your 11-character personal code will not be included in the company's confirmation statement.
- Both director and PSC — for example, you own the company, or more than 25% of the company, and you run it. Two submissions of the same personal code are needed, on two different dates, through two different Companies House systems: the confirmation statement for the director half, and the service called "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" for the PSC half. Most owner-managed companies in the UK sit in this category, which is precisely why so many people are being caught out.
Director vs PSC identity verification: what's different
The ID verification is identical. Only the paperwork afterwards is different — and that's the whole problem.
| Directors | PSCs | |
|---|---|---|
| Must verify their ID? | Yes | Yes |
| How? | Free via GOV.UK One Login, or through an ACSP such as directorverifications.com | The same two routes. There is no separate PSC method for verifying IDs. |
| What do you get? | One 11-character personal code | The same type of code — if you're both director and PSC, literally the same code is used |
| How does the code reach Companies House? | In the company's annual confirmation statement — which the company can file early, whenever it likes | Through a separate service, "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" |
| When? | Any time up to the company's confirmation statement date | In its own 14-day submission window — see below |
| Can you do both at once? | — | No. Companies House does not allow it. |
The thing that's very easy to miss- verifying your ID and submitting your code are two different jobs if you're both a director and PSC of a company. ID verification is a one-off and you can do it today. The deadlines apply to the step afterwards — telling Companies House your 11-character personal code — and that is the part people miss.
Director identity verification deadline: it's your company's confirmation statement due date
ID verification became a legal requirement for UK company directors on 18 November 2025, and directors who were already in post have until 18 November 2026 to comply. 6-7 million people have to have their IDs verified inside that period.
For a company that already exists, the November 2026 date is rarely the one that matters. Companies House won't accept your confirmation statement until every director has verified and given their code, so your real deadline is your company's next confirmation statement date. A March statement means a March deadline; October means October.
You don't have to wait for that date. The company can file its confirmation statement early, at any point it likes, with every director's code in it. What there isn't is a separate service for a director to submit a code on its own — for a director, the code may only be submitted in the confirmation statement.
To find your date, look your company up free at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk, open the Overview page and read "Next statement date".
PSC verification deadline: your 14-day window explained
As a PSC you submit the same 11-character personal code all over again, through a separate Companies House service. It has a name, and hardly anyone knows it: "Provide identity verification details for a PSC". That reads like an instruction rather than a name, and that is exactly what it is — Companies House names its services after the job they do. Search for it by that name. Nothing in the confirmation statement tells you it exists, so you have to go and find it.
Companies House gives every PSC a 14-day window. Which one you get depends on who you are:
- A PSC who is not a director of that company — you submit your personal code during the first 14 days of your birth month. Companies House's own example is that if you were born on 22 January, your window runs from 1 to 14 January. The day you were born makes no difference beyond naming the month for submission.
- Both a director and a PSC of the same company — you provide the same code twice, once for each role. As a director it goes in the company's confirmation statement. Then, as a PSC, you submit that same code again through "Provide identity verification details for a PSC", during the 14 days starting the day after the company's confirmation statement date. GOV.UK says it in those words: you provide your personal code separately for each role.
- If you became a PSC after 18 November 2025 — you submit your personal code when you're first added to the register, or within 14 days of being added.
Don't guess your dates — look them up. GOV.UK says it plainly: you can check the dates of your own 14-day period on the Companies House register. Read them there rather than working them out, and if you are both a director and a PSC, read the confirmation statement date at the same time, because your PSC window runs from the day after it.
Filing your confirmation statement early does not move any of these dates.
A worked example
Anna owns 100% of her consultancy company and is its only director, so she is both a director and a PSC. Her company's confirmation statement date is 14 June. She did not choose that date: it follows from when the company was incorporated, and it is the date shown on the public register as the company's "Next statement date".
- At any time, well in advance: Anna verifies her ID and is issued her 11-character personal code.
- At any point up to 14 June: the company files its confirmation statement and enters Anna's 11-character personal code as the company's director. It can do this early if she wants to get the job out of the way.
- Between 15 and 28 June: Anna signs into a different Companies House service — "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" — and submits exactly the same 11-character personal code again, this time as a PSC of the same company.
One person. One company. One code. Two submissions, a fortnight apart, and she is forbidden from submitting the same code twice at the same time.
If you live outside the UK, or your passport is not British
This is where many people come unstuck, and it is why many of our customers are not British.
The free GOV.UK One Login route is built around UK ID documents and UK addresses. It frequently rejects non-UK passports and identity documents.
And when it rejects you, that is usually the end of it. There is no second government route to fall back on. You are locked out of GOV.UK One Login for an indeterminate period — often several weeks, sometimes several months — with no way to hurry it along and nowhere else in the system to go. We know this at first hand, not from the guidance: when the government route would not verify our own director's identity, we rang the Companies House helpline and were told plainly that the only route left to us was to use an ACSP. Customers tell us the same thing over and over.
That is a serious failing in the government's system, and with a deadline coming it is the whole problem in one sentence.
Using an ACSP is a separate and equally lawful route, and it's usually far easier. directorverifications.com is an ACSP — an Authorised Corporate Service Provider registered with Companies House — and we verify directors and PSCs from anywhere in the world. What this actually involves, step by step, is on our ACSP verification service page. People come to us for many reasons, including (but not limited to):
- they do not hold UK identity documents — the government's own route regularly rejects non-UK passports, and this is the single most common reason people cannot get through it;
- they live outside the UK — with us, no UK address is needed, no UK credit history has to be questioned, and nothing that has to be done in person in the UK;
- they do not need to install a government ID app on their phone — with us you do not install an app at all;
- they do not want a GOV.UK One Login account — with us, it is not needed at any stage;
- the GOV.UK One Login app has already rejected them;
- they want the identity check done today rather than left hanging;
- they are verifying several people at once — see bulk director verification;
- it's much easier and far less hassle to use an ACSP such as directorverifications.com to verify your ID than it is to use the GOV.UK One Login service.
You end up with exactly the same type of Companies House 11-character personal code, because Companies House issues it the same way whichever route you choose: it emails the code directly to your inbox.
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How much does ACSP identity verification cost?
| Service | Price | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | £24.99 per person | Completed within 24–48 hours |
| Fast Track | £39.99 per person | Same day when your payment and your ID document are both received before 5pm, seven days a week |
The price is per person whose ID we verify, not per company — three directors means three verifications. The price you see is the price you pay; we do not have any hidden extras.
And if our automated, AI-powered check cannot confirm a match, a member of our team reviews your documents by hand. That is included in the price — we never charge you twice.
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A ten-minute checklist
- Look up your company on the public register and note the next confirmation statement due date.
- List every director and every PSC, marking who is both. If you live outside the UK, you are not exempt from verifying your ID.
- Ask everyone for their 11-character personal code. If they can't produce the code, their ID hasn't been verified, whatever they believe.
- Get your non-verified colleagues verified.
- File the confirmation statement with every director's code in it. You can file early if you'd rather get the job sorted and out of the way.
- Then, separately, and on a different date, sign in to the Companies House service called "Provide identity verification details for a PSC", check the submission date range it gives you, and submit each PSC's code inside that window.
Submitting each PSC's code through "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" is the step people forget, because nothing about filing the confirmation statement suggests there is anything more left to do.
Penalties for missing the director or PSC verification deadline
| What | What Companies House says |
|---|---|
| Your confirmation statement cannot be filed | It won't accept the confirmation statement until all directors have verified. |
| Acting unverified is an offence | It's unlawful to act as a director without verifying; continuing to act may be an offence under the Companies Act 2006 as amended by ECCTA 2023, and can lead to prosecution, disqualification and fines. |
| Penalties and the public register | Companies House may issue financial penalties at company or officer level, and may annotate the public register — visible to anyone who looks you up, including banks, customers and insurers. |
PSCs are not exempt. A PSC who doesn't verify and submit their code inside their submission window may also be committing an offence.
This is needless red tape, and we are going to say so
We verify IDs for directors and PSCs everyday - as a service our accountancy firm offers - and we aren't going to pretend the Companies House system is sensible or well designed.
A person proves who they are once by verifying their ID. Companies House itself issues them one 11-character personal code that lasts for life. Same code, same person, same register, same government department. There is no reason on earth why the 11-character personal code cannot be uploaded to Companies House in both capacities (director and PSC) in one sitting — it would take one extra tick box. Instead, the company owner is forced to make two separate submissions, on two separate dates, through two separate systems, and is actively blocked from doing them together, and at the same time. For most PSCs the deadline is then pegged to the month they happened to be born in.
This system is needlessly over-complicated and much too onerous for busy company directors, entrepreneurs and PSCs who are trying to run businesses. If you have been going round in circles trying to understand what's going on, don't worry, it isn't you - it's the system that's too complicated and onerous.
But it is what it is, and everybody has to work within it. What we can take off your hands is the identity check itself: we verify who you are, and Companies House issues your 11-character personal code. The two submissions are still yours to make — and that is what the checklist above is for.
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Frequently asked questions
What happens if GOV.UK One Login refuses to verify me?
In practice, that is the end of the government route. You do not get a second attempt, and you cannot fall back on the Post Office option or the security-question route instead — whatever the guidance says is available. You are locked out of GOV.UK One Login for an indeterminate period, often several weeks and sometimes several months. We know this at first hand: when the government route would not verify our own director's identity, we rang the Companies House helpline and were told plainly that the only route left was to use an ACSP. If that has happened to you, an ACSP is not the convenient option — it is the only one.
Do PSCs have to verify their IDs as well as directors?
Yes. Both must verify, both do it the same way — GOV.UK One Login or an ACSP such as directorverifications.com — and both end up with the same type of 11-character personal code, sometimes called a personal code number. What differs is how and when that code is submitted.
I am a director and a PSC of my own company. Do I have to verify my ID twice?
No — you verify once and you receive one 11-character personal code. But you provide that code twice, once for each role: as a director it goes in the company's annual confirmation statement, and as a PSC you submit the same code again through the separate service called "Provide identity verification details for a PSC", within the 14 days starting the day after the company's confirmation statement date. Those are GOV.UK's own words.
When exactly must a PSC submit their code?
A PSC who is not a director: during the first 14 days of your birth month. Both a director and a PSC of the same company: during the 14 days starting the day after the company's confirmation statement date. If you became a PSC after 18 November 2025: when you're first added to the register, or within 14 days of being added. Sign in to "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" to see your own dates — it tells you the exact window that applies to you.
Can I submit my PSC code at the same time as the confirmation statement?
No, and no good reason has ever been given for this. Companies House uses a separate service — "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" — and a separate 14-day submission window for PSCs to file their 11-character personal codes, and filing your confirmation statement early doesn't change your submission date window as a PSC.
My passport isn't British. Can I still be verified?
Yes. We verify people holding non-UK documents every day, from anywhere in the world, with no app needed, no GOV.UK One Login account needed and no UK address needed. Using an ACSP such as directorverifications.com will result in exactly the same type of Companies House 11-character personal code being issued.
Do I need a separate code for each company?
No. The 11-character personal code is issued to you as a person and is used on every company where you are a director or a PSC, in both capacities.
Sources — all GOV.UK
When you need to verify your identity for Companies House — gov.uk/guidance/when-you-need-to-verify-your-identity-for-companies-house
Provide identity verification details for a PSC — gov.uk/guidance/provide-psc-verification
Companies House personal codes for identity verification — gov.uk/guidance/companies-house-personal-codes-for-identity-verification
Companies House approach to non-compliance with mandatory identity verification — gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-approach-to-non-compliance-with-mandatory-identity-verification
People with significant control (PSCs) — gov.uk/guidance/people-with-significant-control-pscs
