How to Verify a Company Director’s Identity Before the 18 November 2026 Deadline (and How to Choose a Provider)

To verify a company director’s identity before the 18 November 2026 deadline, you choose one of two routes. The director verifies directly through GOV.UK One Login, or an Authorised Corporate Service Provider runs the check and confirms it to Companies House on their behalf. Both meet the same standard. The decision is which route, and which provider, gets your people through cleanly and at volume.

If you act for clients or sit across a group structure, that decision carries real weight. A practice with hundreds of directors and Persons with Significant Control on its book cannot rely on each individual completing a government check unprompted. The route you pick, and the identity method behind it, decides how many people finish first time and how much chasing your team absorbs in the run-up to the deadline.

For the full detail on what is changing, who is in scope and the penalties, see the Companies House identity verification explainer below. This page sits on top of that. It is about choosing how to do it.

What is the deadline to verify a director’s identity?

Identity verification has been mandatory for new directors and new incorporations since 18 November 2025. Every existing director and PSC must verify by 18 November 2026, phased across a 12-month transition. Many companies face an earlier point, because existing directors verify by their next confirmation statement rather than waiting for the final date.

That phasing is the part most planning misses. A company with a confirmation statement due in spring cannot leave its directors until November. The verified status has to be in place before that statement is filed. Treating 18 November 2026 as a single fixed date risks tripping an earlier deadline tied to your own filing calendar.

Companies House estimates six to seven million directors and PSCs are in scope. Its third progress report, published on 11 June 2026, said nearly four million had verified and linked their identity to their appointments. That leaves a large share still to complete with the window narrowing.

What are the two routes to verify a director’s identity?

There are two routes, and a director can use either. The first is to verify directly through GOV.UK One Login, the government’s own identity service. The second is to verify through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, a firm that runs the check and confirms it to Companies House on the person’s behalf. Both routes meet the same medium level of assurance under the government’s GPG45 standard.

Once a person verifies, by either route, they receive one personal code. That single code applies to all of their appointments across every company. A director who sits on five boards verifies once and uses the same code for all five.

When does the ACSP route make sense?

The ACSP route fits any business that would rather not send each director and PSC off to verify alone. You register as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, run the check inside your own onboarding, and confirm it to Companies House. For accountancy and formation firms, this turns verification into a service you deliver and charge for, rather than a hurdle your clients trip over on their own.

Two things follow from taking that route. First, registration. An ACSP is a Companies House registered, anti-money-laundering supervised firm, and registration carries a fee of £55 at the time of writing, conditional on Companies House’s current terms. Second, evidence. An ACSP has to run each check to the required standard and keep records that hold up to inspection. The identity method you use decides both how many clients finish and how defensible each record is afterwards.

How do you choose a director identity verification provider?

Choose on completion rate and evidence quality first, because those are what decide whether the programme finishes on time and survives an audit. The questions worth asking before you commit:

• Completion. What proportion of people finish the check first time? A method people abandon halfway turns into a chasing exercise across thousands of records.
• Assurance. Does the check meet GPG45 medium, the level Companies House accepts for both routes?
• Evidence. Does it produce an audit-ready record you can stand behind, from an authoritative data source rather than a photographed document?
• Data held. Does it store copies of identity documents, or confirm identity without retaining them? Less data held is less data to protect and justify.
• Volume. Can it handle hundreds or thousands of directors and PSCs through one process, not one person at a time?
• The verifying person’s experience. What does the check feel like for the director? A clean, fast confirmation gets finished. A fiddly app process gets put off.

That last point is where most backlogs come from. A document-and-passport-chip check asks the person to download an app, photograph an identity document, hold a phone steady against the chip, and wait. A fair share stall partway. A bank-verified check asks the person to confirm their identity through a service they already use, and returns a result in seconds. Both produce a valid outcome, but not at the same completion rate. Across millions of people, that gap decides whether the programme stays on top of the deadline or falls behind it.

Companies House’s own figures show the standard people expect. In its 11 June 2026 progress report, 94% of people found the verification instructions clear and 90% found the process easy, with complaints running at roughly one in every 5,000 verifications. The provider you choose should clear that bar.

How OneID fits

OneID is a certified digital verification services provider, regulated by the FCA. It confirms identity from authoritative sources, including bank-held data, with configurable match counts across independent datasets, and returns an audit-ready result without storing identity documents. For a firm verifying directors and PSCs in volume, that means more people finishing the check first time and a cleaner record behind every one.

The deadline is fixed at 18 November 2026, and the confirmation-statement dates that bind many companies arrive sooner. The practical first decision is which identity method gets the most directors and PSCs verified, with the least friction and the strongest evidence behind each one. Map your in-scope people against your confirmation-statement calendar now, decide your route, and start the verifications you can already see coming due.

Frequently asked questions

How do I verify a company director’s identity?

A director verifies their identity in one of two ways. They can verify directly through GOV.UK One Login using a biometric passport or UK driving licence, or in person at a participating Post Office. Alternatively, an Authorised Corporate Service Provider can run the check and confirm it to Companies House on their behalf.

What is the deadline to verify a director’s identity with Companies House?

Verification has been mandatory for new directors since 18 November 2025. All existing directors and PSCs must verify by 18 November 2026, phased across a 12-month transition. Many companies face an earlier deadline tied to their next confirmation statement, so the effective date can fall well before November 2026.

What is an ACSP and do I need one to verify directors?

An Authorised Corporate Service Provider is a Companies House registered, anti-money-laundering supervised firm that can verify identity and confirm it to Companies House on someone’s behalf. You do not have to use one, as directors can verify themselves through GOV.UK One Login, but firms verifying many directors and PSCs or filing for clients often choose this route.

Does a director need to verify separately for each company?

No. Each person verifies once and receives a single personal code. That code applies to all of their appointments across every company, so a director who sits on several boards verifies one time and uses the same code throughout.

How should I choose a director identity verification provider?

Choose on completion rate and evidence quality first. Check that the method meets GPG45 medium, that it produces an audit-ready record from an authoritative source rather than a photographed document, that it can handle your volume, and that the experience is quick enough that people actually finish it.