Director identity verification: what ECCTA means for you

Short answer: the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act made identity verification a legal requirement for every UK company director and person with significant control. It started on 18 November 2025. Most people can do it free in minutes. The part that catches people out is not the check — it's the deadline, which is usually tied to your company's confirmation statement rather than to any headline date.

This is the overview. Each section links to a fuller guide.

What ECCTA actually changed

For decades, anyone could be appointed a director of a UK company without proving they were a real person. That was the weakness — thousands of companies registered to invented people and unwitting members of the public.

ECCTA is the response. It gave Companies House powers it never had: to query and reject filings, to remove inaccurate information, to share data with law enforcement, and — the change that affects you — to require that directors and PSCs prove who they are.

Alongside verification came related tightening: registered offices must now be an "appropriate address" and PO boxes are banned, companies must maintain a registered email address, and Companies House fees rose to fund the new regime.

Who has to verify

• Directors of UK companies
• People with significant control — broadly, anyone holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or exercising significant influence or control
• Anyone filing on a company's behalf, in due course

Verification will be extended to LLP members, corporate directors and corporate PSCs at a later date. That timetable hasn't been set, so if that's you, the requirement is coming rather than absent.

It is a one-off, personal check. Verify once, and use the same 11-character personal code for every company where you hold a role, for the rest of your career.

→ Full guide: what a personal code is and what to do with it

When you have to do it

The date most people quote — 18 November 2026 — is the end of a 12-month transition period. GOV.UK is explicit that the start date "is not a deadline."

Your actual deadline depends on your role:

For a great many companies that means the real date is earlier than November 2026, not later.

→ Full guide: working out your actual verification deadline

What's checked, and how

Four routes exist:

• GOV.UK One Login — free, app-based, accepts a biometric passport from any country as well as UK photo driving licences and residence permits
• Bank or building society check — UK residents only
• Post Office, in person — UK residents only, started online first
• Authorised Corporate Service Provider — an accountant, solicitor or agent registered with Companies House carries out the check for you

All four produce the same personal code. There is no premium version.

→ Full guides: which documents are accepted · ACSP or One Login?

How to pass first time

The rules rarely cause failures. Presentation does.

• Use a current document. On the One Login and bank routes there is no expiry tolerance at all.
• Photograph documents flat, in daylight, all four corners visible, no flash — glare across the machine-readable strip is the classic failure.
• Make sure your name matches across documents. If it has changed, have the certificate that bridges it.
• Make sure the address you enter matches your supporting document.
• Take the phone case off before the chip read.

What happens if you ignore it

It becomes a criminal offence to act as a director without verifying — section 167M of the Companies Act. Companies House can issue financial penalties at company or individual level, annotate the public register, prosecute, or seek disqualification.

In practice the more immediate consequence is simpler: your filings stall. Your personal code is needed for the confirmation statement, so an unverified director blocks it — and a missed confirmation statement is its own, more serious problem.

→ Full guide: what happens if you don't verify

What to do this week

1. Find your company's confirmation statement date on the register.
2. If you hold a current passport, go to GOV.UK and verify. It's free and takes minutes.
3. Save your personal code somewhere you'll find it again.
4. Check whether anyone else at your company — co-directors, or shareholders above 25% — still needs to act. They are often the delay.