Companies House has published its latest management figures, and they’re a quiet warning for UK directors: by the end of June 2026, only 55% of directors, 50% of LLP members, and 42% of people with significant control had completed the mandatory identity verification process. The 12-month transition period that started on 18 November 2025 ends on 17 November 2026, which leaves under three months for the majority of company officers who haven’t yet done this to get it sorted.
This isn’t a minor administrative task you can quietly let slide. Companies House’s own 2026-27 business plan states it will “take proportionate action against those who fail to verify their identity” and that by the end of the financial year, every company should either have met the requirement or be on a clearly defined pathway to compliance or enforcement. Enforcement is described as risk-based, meaning it’ll focus first on cases with signs of false identity or threats to the integrity of the register, but that’s cold comfort if your own filing gets caught in a backlog as the deadline approaches and Companies House processes a rush of last-minute verifications.
Why this keeps slipping down the to-do list
Identity verification for directors, LLP members, and PSCs is genuinely quick, done either through GOV.UK One Login online or in person at a Post Office, and takes most people around ten minutes once they sit down to do it. The problem isn’t difficulty, it’s that it doesn’t feel urgent until it suddenly is. There’s no daily reminder, no invoice, nothing forcing the issue the way a tax deadline does, so it sits on a list of “should do this month” items that keeps rolling over.
It’s also worth flagging that this same deadline has already been weaponised by scammers sending fake “urgent verification required” emails, which has understandably made some directors more cautious about anything that looks like a prompt to act on this. That caution is sensible, but it shouldn’t tip into ignoring the requirement altogether. The real process only happens via GOV.UK One Login or in person, never through a link in an unsolicited email.
The two problems feed each other: the more directors delay because they’re wary of scam emails, the bigger the genuine last-minute rush becomes, which is exactly the noisy, high-pressure environment scammers thrive in.
What to do this week
Check who in your business actually needs to do this. Every director, every LLP member, and every person with significant control needs individual verification, not just one person on behalf of the company. In a small business with two or three directors and a couple of PSCs, that can be four or five separate people who each need ten minutes.
Do it now rather than in November. With roughly half of eligible people still not verified nationally, the final weeks before 17 November are likely to see a genuine crunch, both online and at Post Office counters. Getting it done in a quiet week beats trying to squeeze it in during the deadline rush.
Build it into your annual compliance rhythm. If your business relies on filings, confirmation statements, or accounts deadlines that Companies House already tracks, this is worth treating the same way. A simple compliance checklist, the kind Smallprint provides templates for, makes it far less likely a required check like this one gets missed again next time round.
The takeaway
This one has a hard deadline, a straightforward fix, and no good reason to still be outstanding. If you’re not certain every director, LLP member, and PSC in your business has completed verification, that’s worth confirming this week, not in November.
