Why is ID Verification for PSCs needed?

A Person with Significant Control (PSC) at Companies House is an individual or legal entity that owns or controls a UK company, typically holding >25% of shares/voting rights or influencing the board. They must be registered to increase transparency, tackle fraud, and improve corporate accountability. Just like UK company directors, the identities of all UK company PSCs needs to be verified. Here is some more information:

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) became UK law in 2023.

Starting from 18 November 2025, the new law stipulates that all UK Persons with Significant Control (PSCs), company directors, LLP members and Limited Partnership partners must verify their identities with Companies House using government-issued ID documents such as passports and driving licences. The law applies whether the PSCs and company directors, etc, live in the UK or abroad.

All PSCs and directors of UK registered companies, together with UK LLP members, are required by law to verify their IDs by the second half of November 2026.

Non-compliance with the new law will trigger very harshly-worded letters from Companies House that threaten prosecution and/or financial penalties. Continued non-compliance will lead to prosecution and fines. 

Furthermore, Companies House will forbid non-compliers from filing any documents at Companies House and prevent them from becoming directors of other companies. 

The ACSP ID verification service for PSCs offered by directorverifications.com is second to none.

The process has been designed to be easy and straightforward and everything is carefully handled on behalf of our customers.

Once a customer has signed up by clicking on the “Get verified for £24.99” button and signing up for the service, an automatically generated email will be sent to the customer’s inbox.

Next, the customer will click on the “Start Verification” button and follow the instructions to scan their government issued ID document, such as a passport or driving licence, and take a scan of their face. After this has information has been submitted, our expert ID verification partner will verify the customer’s identity and send the completed and certified verification details back to us. We then upload this information to Companies House ACSP portal.

Companies House will then send each customer their individual 11-digit personal verification code directly to their inbox.

The fees charged by directorverifications.com for the Standard service is £24.99 or £39.99 for the Fast Track service. Turnaround time is 24-48 hours for the normal service and the fast track service provides a same day service (if the order is received by 4pm on a working day).