A really big change for Limited Companies and others is coming in 2025. From the Autumn all Directors & PSC will be required to verify their identity with Companies House. The process aims to cut down of fraud, shell companies and unscrupulous agents. No matter how long you’ve been a Director or Person of Significant Control, you will need to verify your identity and address before any changes are made to your Company or filings – this includes your annual accounts.
One side effect of these changes is that accountants will not be able to file statutory accounts if the identity of those listed at Companies House aren’t verified. This means that those involved with the company need to get verified as soon as they can.
This includes:
Company directors, new and existing
PSCs (persons with significant control)
Directors of relevant legal entities (RLEs)
Members of limited liability partnerships (LLPs)
General partners of limited partnerships
Directors of overseas companies doing business in the UK
Most people making filings to Companies House on behalf of a company, with the exception of authorised corporate service providers (ACSPs), who are already authorised by the Registrar.
Hippey Accountancy are an Authorised Corporate Service Provider for Companies House which means we are authorised to verify individuals. The requirements are very strict and means we have made some changes to our internal process involved. Even if we’ve taken your document previously, the changes mean we are likely to need to do it again.
In many cases, you might find it easier to verify your details directly with Companies House via a ‘OneGOV’ log in, this service is free and takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. Once completed you’ll be given a ‘Companies House Personal Code’, this can be added to your company record and passed to us.
Our ID & Address verification service for Directors is from £45+VAT for UK Based individuals and from £100+VAT for those outside the UK. We’ll take you through the process and update your records at Companies House for you. You’ll need to be an existing client or onboarding with us, unfortunately we cannot currently offer the service outside of our client base.
How does the process work?
Whatever service you use, you’ll need to provide some basic details first -
full name and any former names
date of birth
home address
address history for a minimum of the last 12 months
email address (must be verifiable)
Then you’ll need to provide some documentation. For example, our service you’ll need to provide 2 documents from the selection below:
2 documents from group A (1 must contain your current home address)
or
1 document from group A, and 1 document from group B
Group A documents are:
Current UK passport or Irish passport card
Identity Card with biometric information from the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein
UK biometric residence permit (BRP) – these can be up to 18 months expired
UK biometric residence card (BRC)
UK accredited PASS card
UK or EU driver digital tachograph card
UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and EU photocard driving licence (full or provisional)
UK HM Forces ID Card
UK HM Armed Forces Veteran Card
UK Frontier Worker permit
photographic work permit (government issued)
photographic immigration document
photographic visa
UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man firearms licence
Group B documents are:
bank or building society statement
UK local authority or social housing rental agreement – this must be for the person’s current address
mortgage statement – this must be for the person’s current address
UK council tax statement – this must be for the person’s current address
utility bill – this must be for the person’s current address
Group B items must be no more than 3 months old.
Finally, if we’ve not met you in person we’ll undertake a short recorded video call with you. The likelihood is that we’ve already undertaken this during our previous meetings. We’ll need to do this for all Directors & PSC’s of the company. The process will only take a few minutes and can be completed on a mobile phone or computer. Please note that Companies House require us to clearly see your face during this process, it will be compared to the ID documents received by us.
Once this process is completed, Companies House will be informed of the outcome and where passed a Personal Code will be issued.
Records
We are required to keep records of all the evidence and information you used to verify someone’s identity. We must keep these for 7 years from the date you complete the identity verification process, including any failures.
Please be aware that Companies House have very strict guidance and it is the person’s responsibility to prove that they are who they say they are.