Companies House Identity Verification Passes 3.7 Million Appointments; A Messy Start, But Probably the Right One
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Governance structures aligned to UK company law
Companies House filings and ongoing compliance management
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Corporate governance remediation and register reviews
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If you’ve recently discovered that Companies House now expects directors and PSCs to prove they are real people — and that this somehow involves multiple portals, login journeys and enough redirects to test anyone’s patience — speak to us. We help firms navigate the practical side of compliance without losing half a working day to government websites.
For decades, Companies House operated on an unusually optimistic assumption: that most people filing company information were broadly telling the truth.
The result was a corporate register that was extraordinarily open, extraordinarily efficient — and, unfortunately, extraordinarily vulnerable to abuse.
That is now beginning to change.
Following the implementation of identity verification requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCT Act), Companies House has published its first meaningful statistics showing how many Director and PSC appointments have now been verified.
The numbers are still relatively low overall, but the trajectory is significant.
The Numbers So Far
Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025, kicking off a 12-month transition period for Directors, Persons of Significant Control (PSCs) and LLP members.
The first two quarterly datasets show rapid growth:
By 31 December 2025, Companies House had verified 823,771 appointments, representing 6.27% of all relevant appointments.
By 31 March 2026, that figure had climbed to 3,753,653 verified appointments, representing 28.49% compliance.
That is a substantial increase in only one quarter. In practical terms, the number of verified appointments grew by almost three million between Q3 and Q4.
It is also worth remembering that these figures measure appointments, not unique individuals. One person may hold multiple directorships or PSC positions across different entities.
A Long Way to Go — But Also a Serious Shift
Viewed negatively, you could say that more than 70% of appointments still remained unverified by March 2026.
Viewed realistically, this is the first time in British corporate history that Companies House has attempted anything close to meaningful identity assurance at scale.
And frankly, it was overdue.
The UK corporate register has long been criticised for allowing:
fake directors
fabricated addresses
nominee structures with little transparency
dissolved entities resurrected for fraud
overseas control structures with minimal scrutiny
The ease of incorporation helped make the UK an attractive place to do business. It also made it attractive to people who should probably not have been doing business at all.
The Reality: Not Everyone Unverified Is Fraudulent
It would be easy — and incorrect — to assume that everyone who has not completed verification is suspicious.
Many will simply be:
small business owners unfamiliar with the new process
elderly directors with limited digital confidence
dormant-company holders who barely interact with Companies House
individuals struggling with document matching or portal navigation
people waiting until closer to the deadline during the transition period
And yes, the system itself has not been entirely frictionless.
The transition between legacy Companies House services and the newer GOV.UK One Login environment has occasionally felt like a technology project designed by several departments that only communicate through committee minutes. Identity checks work, but the user journey is not always elegant.
Still, the broader direction is positive.
Why This Matters
The introduction of identity verification changes the psychology of the UK corporate register.
Previously, incorporating a company could be done with remarkably little friction. That openness supported entrepreneurship, but it also created an environment where shell entities, false filings and opaque ownership structures could proliferate quietly inside the system.
Verification will not eliminate fraud. It will, however:
raise the cost of abuse
improve traceability
strengthen confidence in UK corporate records
support banks and regulated firms conducting due diligence
make it harder to use UK companies anonymously at scale
For financial institutions, APIs, EMIs and professional service firms, cleaner corporate data ultimately improves onboarding, KYC and risk assessment quality across the wider ecosystem.
The Bigger Picture
The UK is attempting something difficult: preserving the speed and accessibility of incorporation while introducing meaningful transparency controls.
That balance matters. Over-engineer the process and you discourage legitimate entrepreneurs. Leave it untouched and the register remains vulnerable to abuse.
At 28.49% verified appointments after only a few months, the system is clearly still in transition. But the trend line suggests momentum, and the underlying policy direction is hard to argue against.
For all the inevitable frustrations of implementation, this is probably the first genuinely serious attempt in years to clean up the sprawling, semi-anonymous undergrowth buried within the UK corporate register.
And, on balance, that is a good thing.
