Authorised Corporate Service Provider: the ACSP route

The OneID Team®

A director needs to prove who they are to Companies House. They want to do it once, have it accepted first time, and never think about it again. The firm acting for that director wants the same thing, multiplied across every client on the books, with a record that holds up if Companies House comes back to look.

That is the practical question behind the new identity rules, and an authorised corporate service provider is one of the two ways to answer it. The firm runs the check, confirms it to Companies House, and folds the whole thing into onboarding rather than sending each client off to do it alone. This piece sets out what an ACSP is, who is eligible to become one, what the check actually involves, and the standard every check has to meet.

What is an authorised corporate service provider (ACSP)?

An authorised corporate service provider is a firm that Companies House has registered to file on the register on behalf of others and to verify the identity of clients. Companies House also calls these firms authorised agents. The two terms describe the same thing.

Once a firm is registered, it gets a digital account and a unique identifier. It uses these to confirm to Companies House that it has checked someone’s identity to the required standard. The individual then receives a personal code linked to their record. That code is the thing the register looks for.

In practical terms, ACSP status is what lets an accountant, a solicitor, or a formation agent do the verification work their clients would otherwise have to do themselves. For firms that handle company formations and confirmation statements at any volume, that is the difference between running a controlled process and chasing dozens of people to complete a check you cannot see.

The two routes to verify identity for Companies House

There are two ways a director or PSC can verify. The first is direct, through GOV.UK One Login. The second is through an ACSP. Both finish in the same place: a Companies House personal code attached to the person’s record.

The route does not change the standard. It changes who owns the process and who keeps the evidence.

	GOV.UK One Login	Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP)
Who runs the check	The individual, directly	The firm (accountant, solicitor, formation agent)
Cost	Free	The ACSP may charge a fee
Standard	GPG45 medium level of assurance	GPG45 medium level of assurance (identical)
Record keeping	Held by Companies House / One Login	ACSP keeps records for 7 years
Best for	A single director verifying once	Firms verifying directors, PSCs, and clients in volume
Output	Companies House personal code	Companies House personal code

Route one suits a single director verifying themselves once. They go to GOV.UK One Login, which picks the method that works for them, usually verifying with a document and a photo of themselves, and they come away with their personal code at no cost.

Route two suits a firm. The client hands their approved documents to their accountant or solicitor, the firm runs the check to the standard and confirms it through its authorised-agent service, and the client receives an eleven-character personal code by email. The firm controls the process and keeps the record. The trade-off is that the firm carries the obligation to verify to the standard and to retain the evidence for seven years.

Who can become an ACSP, and how?

Eligibility starts with anti-money-laundering supervision. To register, a firm must already be supervised by one of the 25 UK AML supervisory bodies, and it provides its AML membership number as part of the application. In practice that means accountants, solicitors and other legal professionals, and company formation agents. Identity verification for accountants and law firms runs through exactly this route.

The registration steps are short, and the order matters.

Confirm the firm is supervised by a UK AML supervisory body and have the membership number to hand.
Verify your own identity for Companies House before you apply. This step comes first, and the application cannot complete without it.
Apply through the “register as a Companies House authorised agent” service, live since 18 March 2025. A sole trader registers themselves. To register a business, the applicant must hold a senior role such as director, partner, or member.
Pay the registration fee, currently £55.
Receive a digital account and unique identifier, which the firm uses to verify client identities.
Keep records of every identity check for seven years, and expect random compliance checks from Companies House.

The identity-verification function is live now. Filing on behalf of clients through the agent route is phased separately and is expected to begin no earlier than November 2026, so any plan that depends on agent filing should treat that date as provisional. Companies House monitors registered ACSPs on an ongoing basis, runs random data checks, and can suspend or stop a provider that does not keep to the rules.

What standard does an ACSP have to verify to?

Both routes meet the same bar: the medium level of assurance under the Government Digital Service Good Practice Guide 45, known as GPG45. An ACSP verifies to the same standard as the direct Companies House service, set out in the Registrar’s (Identity Verification by ACSPs) Rules 2025. Where the director verifies makes no difference to how rigorous the check has to be.

There are two ways to meet that standard. The first is a documentary check using Identity Document Validation Technology, which validates the cryptographic features of a chipped document such as a passport, or technology that validates the physical security features of a non-chipped document such as a UK driving licence. The second is a manual check carried out by a person, in person or remotely.

The split matters for the quality of the record. An IDVT check reads the cryptographic chip and confirms the document is genuine deterministically. A manual check relies on a person comparing a face to a photograph, which is a probabilistic judgement and harder to evidence later. Both are permitted. They do not produce records of equal strength under scrutiny.

A firm can use a commercial verification provider to carry out the check. It remains responsible for deciding whether the information is true. Outsourcing the technology does not outsource the accountability. That is the point worth dwelling on, because it shapes which provider a firm should pick.

What this means for completion and defensibility

Two things decide whether the ACSP route is worth running. The first is how many clients get through the check without dropping out, because every client who abandons verification becomes a chase: a delayed filing and another call to make. The second is how well the record stands up when Companies House runs one of its random checks.

Method drives both. A check that asks an elderly director to find a chipped passport, photograph it, and complete a liveness step on a phone they barely use will see people give up. A check built around the verification method most likely to work for that person will not. And a check that produces a cryptographically validated record gives the firm something concrete to show, rather than a note that a colleague looked at a passport over a video call.

This is where the choice of verification method, not the choice of route, separates a clean programme from a backlog. The regulator’s question is authority, not anomaly. Companies House is not testing whether a filing looked suspicious. The test is whether the firm can show, on the record, that it confirmed this person to the standard, on the date claimed.

Where OneID fits

OneID is a UK digital verification services provider, certified under the Digital Verification Services Trust Framework as the first Identity Service Provider, and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 928911). As a Digital Verification Services Trust Framework (DVSTF)-certified provider, OneID’s identity verification meets the GPG45 medium level of assurance the Companies House standard requires. A firm acting as an authorised corporate service provider can use it to run the check while keeping responsibility for the outcome, exactly as the rules require.

For an ACSP, three things change in practice. Letting the client pick the verification method lifts completion, with bank-based and digital wallet verification reaching 80 to 90 per cent completion against the 50 to 60 per cent typical of older document-and-selfie flows. The record itself is deterministic, built on cryptographically validated data rather than a photographic comparison, which maps directly to the IDVT requirement and holds up better under a Companies House check. On top of that, the firm gets an audit-ready evidence trail without having to store identity documents itself, so there is less retained personal data sitting against a seven-year obligation.

There is one more practical benefit for firms with repeat clients. Once a person has verified, they hold a reusable passkey-secured credential, so a director who returns for a second company can be re-verified in a tap rather than starting from scratch. Over 10 million people have completed identity checks through OneID’s verification services, which is the scale a firm wants behind a process it is folding into onboarding.

For most directors, the experience is short. They confirm their identity in seconds, the firm receives a verified result, and the personal code lands by email. No paperwork shuttled back and forth, no document left sitting in an inbox.

The deadline that actually applies to your clients

Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025, when it turned compulsory for new directors and people with significant control. That is not a single cliff-edge for everyone else. It is the start of a staggered twelve-month transition, with existing directors and PSCs verifying by their own due dates through to late 2026.

For an existing director, the date that binds is the day their next confirmation statement is filed. They must verify before then, and the required date shows on the company’s record on the register. So the question for a firm is not whether 18 November 2026 is far off. It is which of your clients has a confirmation statement due in the next few months, because each of those is a verification that has to happen first.

That is the case for sorting your ACSP route now rather than near the deadline. If you are choosing the verification method behind the check, choose one that gets your clients through first time and leaves a record you would be content to show. An authorised corporate service provider that verifies with a DVSTF-certified provider gets a check that meets the standard and a record that holds. Verified person, verified data.

To see how OneID supports an ACSP through the check, verify a director’s identity with audit-ready verification built to the Companies House standard.

FAQ

What is an authorised corporate service provider (ACSP)? An authorised corporate service provider, also called an authorised agent, is a firm registered with Companies House to file on the register for others and to verify the identity of clients. Eligible firms are those supervised by a UK AML body, typically accountants, solicitors, and company formation agents.

How do you verify identity for Companies House? There are two routes. You can verify directly through GOV.UK One Login for free, or an ACSP can verify your identity and confirm it to Companies House on your behalf. Both meet the GPG45 medium level of assurance and end with a Companies House personal code linked to your record.

Can an accountant verify director identity for Companies House? Yes. Identity verification for accountants runs through the ACSP route. An accounting firm supervised by a UK AML body can register as an authorised corporate service provider, verify a client’s identity to the required standard, and confirm it to Companies House. The client receives an eleven-character personal code by email.

How much does it cost to register as an ACSP? The registration fee is currently £55, paid once when the firm applies through the “register as a Companies House authorised agent” service.

What standard does an ACSP verify to? Every ACSP verifies to the medium level of assurance under Good Practice Guide 45 (GPG45), the same standard as the direct Companies House service. The check can be done using Identity Document Validation Technology or by a manual check carried out by a person.

How long must an ACSP keep identity records? An ACSP must keep records of every identity check for seven years and should expect random compliance checks from Companies House.