What is a Companies House personal code?

• All individual directors of UK companies
• All individual LLP members of UK limited liability partnerships
• All individual persons with significant control (PSCs) of UK companies
• General partners of UK limited partnerships (further details to be confirmed)
• A representative of corporate officers, relevant legal entities and ‘other registrable persons’ (ORPs) (further details to be confirmed)
• Those filing on behalf of companies as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP)

A personal code is required for those involved in UK companies, regardless of where in the world you are resident. A director of a UK company who is resident in Malta, for example, will still need to obtain a Companies House personal code.

A personal code does not need to be obtained for:

• A company secretary (as long as they do not hold other roles)
• A shareholder (as long as they are not a person with significant control by virtue of their shareholding)
• Any individual who ceases to hold all relevant roles as a director, PSC or LLP member (for which they would otherwise required identity verification) safely before the rules come into force on 18 November 2025.

How do you get a Companies House personal code?

To obtain a personal code, an individual’s identity needs to be appropriately verified.

There are a number of options, falling into two main categories:

1. The individual can verify their own identity directly:

• Using the Gov.UK ID Check app
• Using the Gov.UK One Login site
• In person at a Post Office

2. An ACSP can verify the individual’s identity:

• The ACSP can inspect physical documents provided by the individual
• The ACSP can use an electronic service to verify the individual

ACSPs need to be registered and follow a number of requirements when verifying the identity of their clients, which we’ll cover in a separate article.

Whichever route is followed, a personal code will be provided by Companies House upon a successful check. (An ACSP will need to notify Companies House of the check they have completed on the individual for a code to be issued.)

Unlike the Companies House company authentication code, there is no option to choose your own personal code. It will simply be allocated by Companies House.

Companies House will send the allocated code to the individual, regardless of who has applied for it. That means a personal email address for the individual will need to be provided, even when the identity check has been undertaken by an accountant registered as an ACSP. It also means that an accountant looking to file for a verified individual will need to ask their client to supply them with the code.

Companies House is treating the personal code as a secure piece of information, similar to a password. Your code will therefore not be visible on the online public register. Individuals are encouraged to keep the code safe and secure, as you could for a PIN number or other unique codes, and only share it with people you trust to file on your behalf.

We understand that individuals will only need to have their identity verified and obtain a personal code once, unless Companies House has evidence of fraud or error and tells an individual to re-verify. Subject to final confirmation, we understand this means that the original verification of identity remains valid even when someone changes their name.

It’s currently unclear what process an individual might follow to change their Companies House personal code if the code has been compromised.

When do I need to use the Companies House personal code?

An individual person requires one Companies House personal code, which serves to identify them. That single personal code will apply to them across all their roles and all companies they are involved in, now and in the future.

From 18 November 2025, a valid personal code will need to be supplied to Companies House to identify the individual being appointed when the person is:

• Appointed as a director of a company
• Appointed as a member of an LLP
• Added as an individual person with significant control

The code will need to be supplied upon appointment to a new role, whether or not the person’s code has already been notified to Companies House for another appointment, on the same or another company.

Transitional rules apply for those holding roles on companies that exist as at 18 November 2025 (or a somewhat earlier date at which Companies House choose to assess the picture across the UK company population). Those companies will need, as part of their first annual confirmation statement following the implementation date, to provide a personal code for every director or LLP member.

The personal code for PSCs will also need to be confirmed via a separate, new type of transaction on a timetable to be confirmed by Companies House, rather than – as originally thought – in the first confirmation statement. The date to submit the personal code will typically be either within 14 days from the anticipated first confirmation statement (if the PSC is also a director of the company) or in the first 14 days of the birth month of the individual PSC (if the PSC is not also a director of the company).

From a date still to be defined, we understand that general partners of limited partnerships will also need to obtain a personal code via identity verification. That requirement will be phased in for partners of existing limited partnerships, in a similar way to existing UK companies.

From spring 2026, those filing on behalf of a company – including those registered as an ACSP – will also need to include their credentials as part of each submission to Companies House.

We await further details of when and how a representative of a corporate director and relevant legal entity will need to obtain and supply a personal code.

The Companies House personal code will not need to be supplied when:

• Terminating an existing director or LLP member
• Removing an existing PSC
• Changing the details of an existing director, LLP member or PSC. For example, the code isn’t needed when notifying a change in service address of an existing director, or amending the nature of control exerted by an existing PSC
• Making any filings before the 18 November 2025 implementation date

For companies and LLPs in existence at the 18 November 2025 implementation date, we have covered that a full list of personal codes for those directors and LLP members subject to identity verification will need to be supplied as part of the first confirmation statement. However, there will be no need to repeat that confirmation of personal codes on later confirmation statements. It is a one-time requirement.

How can you record the Companies House personal code in Inform Direct?

A previous version of this article was published on 10 July 2025.