What is an ACSP? The plain, simple answer, and what one can actually do for you

ACSP stands for Authorised Corporate Service Provider. Companies House also calls them authorised agents, which is the clearer of the two names and the one you'll see most often on the GOV.UK website. An ACSP is a business that's registered with Companies House and supervised for AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and that registration lets it do one thing an ordinary accountant or company formation agent can't: check who you are, verify your ID and tell Companies House it's done so - and your ID has been verified.

That's the whole of it, and it's worth being blunt about the limits, because the name suggests something much grander than it is. An ACSP doesn't grant you anything. It doesn't sit between you and Companies House. And it doesn't file your confirmation statement or your PSC submission for you; we don't submit your 11-character personal code to Companies House for you, and no ACSP will. What an ACSP does is verify your ID to the standard Companies House sets, on behalf of Companies House, and keep the records of that ID verification check for seven years.

The reason most people end up Googling "ACSP" is that they've hit the same wall. They tried to verify their ID through the GOV.UK One Login, it wouldn't verify them, and somewhere in the middle of it the phrase "Authorised Corporate Service Provider", or "ACSP" turned up with very little explanation attached to it. If you fit into that category, the short version is: yes, an ACSP can verify you when the government's own service won't, and no, you haven't done anything wrong.

So here's what an ACSP is, what it can and can't do, how to check that the one you're about to pay is genuinely registered, and what it should cost you. And if you’d rather just get your ID verification done, you can start on our ACSP verification service page.

Get verified for £24.99 · Get Fast Track, same day, for £39.99

What an ACSP actually is

An ACSP is a business - a limited company, a partnership, or a sole trader working on their own - that's registered with Companies House as an authorised agent. Registering isn't a formality: GOV.UK puts the condition plainly, that "the agent must always be registered with at least one Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervisory body". That supervision is the point of the entire scheme. Companies House isn't looking at your passport itself, so it needs somebody it can hold responsible for looking at it properly on its behalf.

Once it's registered, an ACSP can tell Companies House that it's verified somebody's ID. That's the power the registration gives it, and it's the only one that matters to you.

Here's what it doesn't give, and this is worth saying because the title maybe promises more than it delivers:

• an ACSP can't verify you as a favour, or to a lower standard. It's the same check, and to the same standard, whoever runs it, and every ACSP answers to an anti-money laundering supervisor - such as HMRC - that ensures the ACSP is doing it properly;
• an ACSP can't submit your 11-character personal code to Companies House for you. Nobody can. That submission requirement will always be your task;
• an ACSP can't get you a different or a better code. There's one 11-character personal code per person, Companies House emails it to you, and it lasts for life;
• being an ACSP isn't a recommendation. Companies House says so itself on the page that lists them: "Companies House does not endorse or recommend the agents on this list".

What an ACSP is actually for

Under ECCTA - the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 - every UK company director and every PSC (Person with Significant Control) has to verify their ID with Companies House and provide an 11-character personal code. There are two ways to do it and only two: the government's own GOV.UK One Login service, which is free, or an ACSP.

That's the whole reason ACSPs exist. Companies House can't run millions of identity checks itself, so it authorised firms to run them on its behalf and made those firms answerable to an anti-money laundering supervisor that makes sure they do it properly.

Which means the practical answer to "do I need an ACSP?" is: not necessarily - but a great many people are better off using one. The government route is free, but two things are worth knowing before you start it. Firstly, it's more difficult and more time-consuming, and therefore a good deal more hassle: it means downloading an app and setting up a GOV.UK One Login before anyone at Companies House so much as looks at your documents. And secondly, there's what happens if (or when) it doesn't work.

Once the government's service has refused to verify you, that's the end of it. You don't get a second attempt at it, you may find yourself locked out of GOV.UK One Login for weeks or even months, and there's no other government route waiting behind it. The Post Office route is closed to you as well once the GOV.UK One Login has refused you. We know this at first hand - it happened to one of our own directors, and the Companies House helpline told him the only route left was an ACSP. That's the whole reason our service was set up.

How to check that an ACSP is genuinely registered

Anyone can put the letters ACSP on a website. Two checks are worth doing before you pay anybody, and neither takes long.

Ask the firm which anti-money laundering supervisor it's registered with. Every genuine ACSP has one - HMRC, or one of the accountancy bodies - and none of them will mind being asked.

Look the firm up on the list Companies House publishes. It's called the List of Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs) and it names each agent, its supervisor, its town and its postcode. directorverifications.com is on it as FINOVIUM LIMITED ACSP, supervised by HMRC - directorverifications.com is a trading style of Finovium Limited, a firm of accountants in West London.

Two things are worth knowing before you lean on that list, though. Agents appear on it only if they've asked to be published, so in Companies House's own words it "may not include all agents that have registered as an ACSP" - a firm's absence from it doesn't prove anything on its own. And being on it isn't a recommendation: "Companies House does not endorse or recommend the agents on this list".

One thing you shouldn't expect, and it's worth explaining because it looks like a gap: a genuine ACSP often won't publish its ACSP registration number or its AML registration number on its website. Those numbers are exactly what a fraudster needs in order to pass themselves off as an authorised agent, so a firm that displays them may be doing something the careful ones don't. Ask, and check the published list.

What you shouldn't do is hand your passport details or your money to a firm that won't answer either question.

What an ACSP should cost

Companies House doesn't set ACSP prices. Every authorised agent sets its own, and they vary far more than you'd expect for what is, in the end, the same check to the same standard.

directorverifications.com charges £24.99 per person for standard ID verification, completed in 24-48 hours on weekdays, and £39.99 per person for Fast Track, which is same day, seven days a week, as long as your payment and your ID document both reach us before 5pm.

Three things about that price:

• The prices are per person whose ID we verify, not per company. Two directors mean two separate verifications. It makes no difference how many companies they're directors of - once verified, the same 11-character personal code can be used across all companies they're involved with - for years to come.
• The price you see is the price you pay - no hidden extras.
• If our automated, AI-powered check cannot verify your ID, a member of our team reviews your documents by hand. That's included in the price - we'll never charge you twice.

When we checked the published prices in September 2026 they ran from about £25 to £150 and upwards per person, so our £24.99 price sits at the bottom of that range - and plenty of agents publish no price at all until you ask. The part worth knowing is that several charge a good deal more if your passport isn't British. We found £74.99 advertised for a non-UK passport by a firm charging £24.99 for a British one. We charge the same £24.99 whoever you are and wherever in the world you live. There's more in our guide to how much an ACSP costs, and it's worth a look before you spend any money.

What using an ACSP actually involves

Very little, and that's the point of paying for one. You sign up and pay, an email arrives, you scan a government-issued ID document and your face using your smartphone camera, your desktop PC camera or your laptop camera, and Companies House emails your 11-character personal code direct to your inbox. There's no app to install, no GOV.UK One Login, no UK address needed and nothing for you to post.

We've set the whole process out step by step in our guide to director ID verification.

And then the part that stays yours: submitting that 11-character personal code to Companies House, either in your company's confirmation statement if you're a director, or through the service called "Provide identity verification details for a PSC" if you're a PSC. We'll show you exactly where it goes.

Get verified for £24.99 · Get Fast Track, same day, for £39.99

Frequently asked questions

Is an ACSP better than the free government route?

Not better, just different - but certainly easier, more straightforward and less hassle. Companies House treats the two identically in terms of the same type of 11-character personal code being issued, whichever route you choose. GOV.UK One Login is free, and for some people it works - but it needs a GOV.UK One Login and an app on your phone, and it turns a lot of people away. An ACSP is your only option when the government route won't verify your ID, and it's quicker and simpler even when it will - if you'd rather not install an app or gamble on whether your documents will be accepted.

Is directorverifications.com an ACSP?

Yes. It's a trading style of Finovium Limited, a firm of accountants in West London, and it appears on the list Companies House publishes as FINOVIUM LIMITED ACSP, supervised by HMRC.

Can an ACSP file at Companies House for me?

Not your 11-character personal code - that submission requirement will always be your task, and no ACSP will do it for you. What an ACSP does is verify your ID and tell Companies House it's been done.

Do I have to use the same ACSP every time?

There's no every time. ID verification is a one-off and your 11-character personal code lasts for life, so you only ever do this once, whoever you do it with.

My passport isn't British. Can an ACSP still verify me?

Yes, and it's the commonest reason people use one. Many of our customers hold non-UK passports and a good many live outside the UK. What's more, you don't need a UK address to use our service.

What if the automated check can't verify my ID?

If our automated, AI-powered check cannot verify your ID, a member of our team reviews your documents by hand. That's included in the price - we'll never charge you twice. It's the commonest reason people come to us after the free route has failed them.