What is Companies House?

The Companies House is the UK registrar of companies. It incorporates and dissolves limited companies and LLPs, holds the public register of their filings, and enforces filing duties under the Companies Act 2006, as amended by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.  

What Companies House Does

The registrar of companies is established under Part 35 of the Companies Act 2006. Companies House incorporates companies, records changes to their officers (directors, PSCs, Secretaries) and ownership, accepts annual filings, and publishes that information for anyone to search. The register covers England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Since the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 began to take effect on 4 March 2024, the registrar has also had powers to query information, reject filings, remove inaccurate material, and share data with law enforcement. 

What does the Register contain? 

The Find and update company information service is free and gives the following for each entity.

• Registered name, number, status, registered office address, and SIC codes
• Current and resigned directors and secretaries
• People with significant control (PSCs), with the nature of their control
• Filing history, including accounts, confirmation statements, and charges
• Incorporation documents and articles

Every Registered Company has recurring filing duties

The two filings that keep a company on the register are annual accounts and the confirmation statement. Both are duties of the directors under the Companies Act 2006, and both are enforced by Companies House rather than HMRC. Miss the accounts deadline and a penalty is imposed automatically. Miss the confirmation statement and the registrar can move to strike the company off. Fees for the main transactions changed on 1 February 2026.

Core Filings and Deadlines: 

Companies must also notify changes to directors, PSCs, and the registered office as they happen, and since 4 March 2024 every company must hold an appropriate registered office address and a registered email address.

Late filing Penalties for accounts: 

The registrar’s late filing penalty guidance sets fixed bands that double if accounts are late in two successive years. 

Not filing accounts or a confirmation statement is an offence, and directors can be prosecuted personally.  

Directors and PSCs must verify their identity:

From 18 November 2025, identity verification became a legal requirement for new and existing directors, PSCs, and LLP members under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. That date opened a 12-month transition period, so existing officers verify by the deadline attached to their role, typically when the company’s next confirmation statement is filed. Anyone appointed as a director after that date, or named as a director on a new incorporation, must verify before the filing is accepted. PSCs have a 14-day window to supply their code, timed to the confirmation statement date if they are also a director, their birth month if they are not, or the date they were added to the register if they became a PSC after 18 November 2025.

The two verification routes are:

• Directly with Companies House through GOV.UK One Login, using an identity document such as a passport.
• Through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), an AML-supervised firm such as a formation agent, solicitor, or accountant that registers with Companies House and must meet the same assurance standard.

Verified individuals receive a Companies House personal code that they supply with a verification statement for each role they hold. A PSC who misses their 14-day window may commit an offence but does not block the company’s filings. Either way, the individual faces prosecution or a financial penalty. Companies House has said identity verification for people who file on behalf of companies will follow no earlier than November 2027, with at least six months’ notice.

Personal Details and documents required: 

Every check starts with the personal details, including full name and any former names, date of birth, home address, 12 months of address history, and an email address. Where the technology validates the document, one photo ID is enough, and where a person checks the documents, it requires two photo IDs or one photo ID and one supporting document. 

The photo IDs and supporting documents that qualify are listed below. 

Expired or cancelled documents are refused, with limited exceptions for passports and residence permits, and anyone living outside the UK must supply at least one government-issued document.