Manage the Companies House ID changes

What’s changing?

Companies House is introducing new identity verification rules under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.

Anyone involved in managing or filing for a UK company must register themselves as an Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSP) and verify their identity with Companies House. This includes accountants and formation agents who file on behalf of others.

All directors and persons with significant control (PSC’s) will need to be identity verified to the standards set by Companies House and be given a unique code to represent this has been completed.

🚨 Once Companies House begins enforcement in Autumn 2025, you won’t be able to file confirmation statements if all directors and PSC's have not been verified. 

Why act now?

This is a big admin update. For many firms, identity verification will involve verifying people across every client company, often across multiple roles and entities. It’s a task that will quickly become unmanageable if left to the last minute.

Without a scalable plan in place, you could find yourself:

• Individually chase each director or PSC individually
  
  
• Managing back-and-forths over email, phone, and other means
  
  
• Lack of clarity in your progress
  
  
• Facing a backlog of filings that can’t be submitted
  
  
• Risk of damaging your firms reputation by rushing your clients
  
  

By acting early, and using a solution like Firmcheck that handles ID checks in bulk, you can:

• Avoid a last-minute scramble
  
  
• Eliminate repetitive manual tasks
  
  
• Keep client work moving smoothly, even under new rules
  
  
• Meet both Companies House and AML requirements in a single, efficient step

How to do it (and how to make it easy)

1. Register as an ACSP 
2. Complete identity verification on your client 
3. Submit identity verification to Companies House 

There are three ways to complete identity verification:

1. Ask each person to verify themselves via GOV.UK One Login

✅ Good option if you only have a small number of clients
⏳ Manual and time-consuming at scale

2. Send them to a UK Post Office

⏳ Slower and location-dependent
📥 No real-time visibility or tracking

3. Use Firmcheck’s bulk verification flow (easiest by far)

✅ Built specifically for accountants and ACSPs
✅ ID requests automated and at scale
✅ Clients upload ID and selfies from any device
✅ Authentication of identity document

And here’s the bonus 😍:
Firmcheck’s identity checks also satisfy AML requirements.

This means one process covers your two compliance needs:

• You meet Companies House rules
  
  
• You meet your AML obligations

No duplication. No extra admin. Just clean, compliant workflows.

Next steps: Free 1-on-1 consultation

Identity verification is becoming part of your core compliance toolkit. With enforcement coming in Autumn 2025, now is the time to act calmly, confidently, and on your terms.

Firmcheck is here to make it as simple as possible, starting with a free 1-on-1 consultation, which consists of an ID gap analysis to show you exactly what’s missing and how to fix it.

👉 Book your free review

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