New company obligation requirement from Autumn

Directors and shareholders may have received communications recently from Companies House asking to verify their identity.

Due to upcoming legal changes, from Autumn, all company directors and ‘persons with significant control’ (PSCs) are required to provide their ID to be verified by Companies House.

• This is a new requirement. If identity verification requirements are not complied with on time, then the individual will commit an offence and may be fined.
• Identity verification only needs to be completed once. When successfully verified, the individual will receive a unique identifier known as a Companies House personal code.
• If a director or PSC continues to act without identity verification after it becomes a legal requirement then this will be an offence resulting in a fine or disqualification. The company and all other directors may also be committing an offence for non-compliance by an individual director or PSC of the same company.

How to comply

The business or the individual can submit the documents required or, as with other company secretarial tasks, your legal provider can complete this on your behalf.

To discuss either of these issues, or if you would like us to deal with Companies House ID verification on your behalf, please get in touch with your usual contact.