Why is ID Verification for PSCs needed?
In short: if you're a PSC (Person with Significant Control) of a UK company, the law now says Companies House has to know who you are. You verify your ID once. Companies House then emails you an 11-character personal code- direct to your inbox - and you hand that code over inside a 14 day window that belongs to you. It's £24.99 per person with directorverifications.com and takes 24 to 48 hours, or £39.99 for our Fast Track service, which is same day when your payment and your ID document both reach us before 5pm, seven days a week.
You don't have to use an ACSP (Authorised Corporate Service Provider). GOV.UK One Login is the government's own route and it's free. Many of our customers choose to use our service because the GOV.UK One Login service wouldn't verify their IDs; the government's service is built around UK documents and UK addresses, and once it's refused you there's no second government route to try. When that happens, the only route left is to use an ACSP such as directorverifications.com.
What a PSC actually is
A PSC - a Person with Significant Control - is the person who really owns or controls a UK company, whatever the paperwork happens to say. Companies House keeps a public register of them to increase transparency, tackle fraud and improve corporate accountability, and just like UK company directors, the identities of all UK company PSCs now need to be verified. GOV.UK's own test is that a PSC is usually anyone who:
- has more than 25% of the shares or voting rights in the company
- can appoint or remove a majority of the directors
- can influence or control the company, or a trust or firm that controls it
In a great many small UK companies the same person is both a director and a PSC. That's the part that catches people out. Being both a director and a PSC involves two different jobs when it comes to submitting your 11-character personal code, with two different submission dates.
Why PSCs have to verify at all
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) became UK law in 2023, and it's what changed all of this.
From 18 November 2025 the new law says that all UK Persons with Significant Control (PSCs), company directors, LLP members and Limited Partnership partners must verify their IDs with Companies House using a government-issued ID document. The law applies whether you live in the UK or abroad.
The reason behind all this is blunt enough. Until now Companies House had no power to check that the people named on its register were who they said they were. Companies House now describes 18 November 2025 as the start of “the 12-month transition phase”, and says in its own published transition plan that it covers “more than 7 million existing directors and PSCs”. That's the scale of it.
And here's the part that's hard to defend. If you're a director and a PSC of the same company - which most small company owners are - you verify your ID once, and then hand the same 11-character code over twice, through two different Companies House services, on two different dates. Same person, same company, same code, two separate jobs. It's needlessly over-complicated and it's much too onerous on busy company directors, entrepreneurs and PSCs, and there's nothing you can do about it except get it done.
Does it apply to you? There are three answers
Which of the three you are
| Who you are | What you have to do |
|---|---|
| A director, but not a PSC | Verify your ID once. Your personal code then goes in the company's next confirmation statement - there's no separate service for a director. |
| A PSC, but not a director | Verify your ID once. You then provide your personal code through the Companies House service called “Provide identity verification details for a PSC”, in the first 14 days of your birth month. |
| Both a director and a PSC of the same company | Verify your ID once, and provide the same code twice. As a director it goes in the confirmation statement. As a PSC you provide it through the PSC service within a 14 day period starting the day after the company's confirmation statement date. |
Almost nobody knows the PSC service has a name, or that it exists at all - nothing in the confirmation statement tells you about it. It's called “Provide identity verification details for a PSC”, and GOV.UK names it in exactly those words. If you're not sure which of the three rows above you're in, our guide to the two PSC deadlines works through it in full.
When you have to do it - your own 14 day period
Verifying your ID and providing your code are two different jobs, and only the second one has a date on it. You can verify your ID today. GOV.UK's words are that “Every PSC has a 14 day period during which they must provide their Companies House personal code and verification statement”, and you can check the dates of your own 14 day period on the Companies House register.
Two things people get wrong about it. Filing the company's confirmation statement early doesn't move your PSC dates - GOV.UK says so plainly: “If the company files its confirmation statement early, the dates of your 14 day period will not change.” And it's 14 days, never 15.
There's also something on GOV.UK that hardly anybody seems to know about. If you can't make your window, the PSC service itself will give you more time: “If you cannot provide your verification details on time, you can use this service to request a 14 day extension.” Don't read it as breathing space, though: you can only provide a personal code once you have one, and that means verifying your ID first.
What happens if you don't
Companies House says it'll send a default letter first. After that its published approach lists financial penalties “at company or individual officer level”, annotating the register “for public transparency”, referral to The Insolvency Service, and prosecution - which, in its words, “may lead to criminal conviction, director disqualification and fines”.
There's a practical consequence too, and it bites long before any of those. Companies House won't accept your company's confirmation statement until every director has verified their ID - so one unverified person holds up the whole company's filing. And an unverified person can't be appointed a director of another company at all: “New directors must verify their identities to be appointed as a director or equivalent.”
It gets wider later on. Companies House has published that, no earlier than November 2027, it intends to “make identity verification of the presenters a compulsory part of filing any document” - so in time an unverified person won't be able to file anything at all. That's a future phase of the same law, not a punishment for being late, and it's not what bites you this year. What bites you this year is the confirmation statement.
If you think you've already missed your date, we've written up what happens if you miss your Companies House ID verification deadline, what the penalties actually are, and what to do about it.
The two ways to verify - and why one of them turns people away
The free route and the ACSP route, side by side
| GOV.UK One Login | An ACSP such as directorverifications.com | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Free | £24.99 per person, or £39.99 on Fast Track |
| What you need | A GOV.UK One Login account, the app installed on your phone, and documents its checks recognise | Your ID document and a scan of your face. No app to install on your phone, no GOV.UK One Login, no UK address needed |
| How long it takes | Varies | 24 to 48 hours, or same day when your payment and your ID document both reach us before 5pm, seven days a week |
| If it can't verify you | There's no second government route. You may find yourself locked out of GOV.UK One Login for weeks or months | A member of our team reviews your documents by hand, and it's included in the price |
That last row is the whole reason this business exists, and we know it at first hand. One of our own directors was refused by the government service, rang the Companies House helpline about it, and was told the only route left to him was to use an ACSP to verify his identity. If you've heard that you can fall back on the Post Office instead - you can't. That door is shut to you once GOV.UK One Login has refused you.
Using an ACSP is also more straightforward from the start. The government route is more difficult and more time-consuming and therefore more hassle, because it involves downloading an app and installing the GOV.UK One Login. And you can use an ACSP from anywhere - GOV.UK puts it plainly: “You can do this from any country, but your agent must register with Companies House to become authorised.”
How we verify a PSC, and what it costs
The process is deliberately simple, and we handle everything on our side of it on your behalf.
You click the “Get verified for £24.99” button on our website and sign up. After making payment, an email from us arrives in your inbox straight away.
You click “Start Verification” in that email, scan your government-issued ID document and take a scan of your face. Once that information has been submitted, our expert ID verification partner verifies your identity and sends the completed and certified verification details back to us. We then submit your verified information to Companies House via their ACSP portal.
Companies House then emails your own 11-character personal code directly to you, straight to your inbox. That code is yours, not the company's, so you use the same one for every company you're involved in. ID verification is a one-off - what comes round again is being asked for the code, not the checking of who you are.
What we don't do is make the submissions for you, and no ACSP will. We verify who you are; but providing the code - in the confirmation statement as a director, or through the PSC service as a PSC - stays your job.
The fee charged by directorverifications.com for the Standard service is £24.99 per person, and £39.99 per person for Fast Track. The Standard service takes 24 to 48 hours. Fast Track is same day when your payment and your ID document both reach us before 5pm, seven days a week. The price is per person whose ID we verify, not per company, and the price you see is the price you pay.
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.
Get verified for £24.99 · Get Fast Track, same day, for £39.99
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to verify my ID if I'm a PSC but not a director?
Yes. PSCs verify in their own right, and it's a separate duty from anything the company's directors do. If you're a PSC and not a director, you provide your 11-character personal code through the Companies House service called “Provide identity verification details for a PSC”, in the first 14 days of your birth month.
I'm both a director and a PSC of the same company. Do I verify twice?
No - you verify your ID once, and you get one 11-character personal code. But you have to provide that same code to Companies House twice, once for each role. As a director it goes in the company's confirmation statement. As a PSC you provide it through the PSC service within a 14 day period starting the day after the company's confirmation statement date. And no, you can't submit both in the same session.
When exactly is my 14 day period?
It depends on which of the three roles you play within the company. A PSC who isn't a director submits their code to Companies House during the first 14 days of their birth month. A PSC who's also a director of the same company submits their code during the 14 days starting the day after the company's confirmation statement date. Somebody added to the register as a new PSC can provide their code when they're first added, or within 14 days of being added. You can check the dates of your own 14 day period on the Companies House register, and if you can't make it, GOV.UK says you can use the PSC service to request a 14 day extension.
What is the 11-character personal code, and where does it come from?
It's the code Companies House issues directly to you once your ID has been verified, and it's your proof that the checking has been done. It's 11 characters, not 11 digits, and it belongs to you rather than to any company - so you use the same one for every company you're involved in. We don't issue it: we verify your ID and submit your verified information to Companies House, and Companies House emails the code direct to your inbox.
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. You don't have to ask for it and you don't have to contact us - if the automated check can't verify you, the review by hand happens automatically.
Can I use an ACSP if I live outside the UK and don't hold a British passport?
Yes, and that's where many of our customers come from. You don't need a UK address and you don't need to be in the UK to use the services of directorverifications.com. GOV.UK's own words are that “You can do this from any country, but your agent must register with Companies House to become authorised” - and Finovium, the ACSP behind directorverifications.com, is registered as an ACSP. You can find Finovium Limited on the list of ACSPs that Companies House publishes; the address beside our name there shows our registered office rather than the London office we work from. We charge the same £24.99 whoever you are and wherever in the world you live, which certainly isn't the case with every ACSP.
