Published: 17 September 2025 5:08 pm  Author: Oliver Stanley

IDV for PSCs – when and how PSCs need to confirm IDV to Companies House

Companies House has confirmed that 18 November 2025 will be the start date for relevant stakeholders to be required to confirm that they have completed IDV.  They have confirmed when and how those stakeholders will need to complete this process.

In this blog post, we summarise all of the relevant information as we know it, and at the end explain how Kudocs will be supporting these changes.

Also, we ran a webinar last week with a panel of CoSec experts to discuss these requirements and their practical implications.  The recording is here – and well worth a listen!

 

To summarise, the IDV process has two stages:

1. Verification – the individual proves their identity through Companies House or an ACSP, receiving an 11-character Unique ID (UID).  This is also known as the Personal Code. The IDV requirement is the same whatever role the individual has and only has to be done once per individual.
2. Notify Companies House – the UID must then be submitted to Companies House in the next relevant filing. This will enable Companies House to connect the UID to the stakeholder in their database – whether for existing or new roles.  Who needs to file when and how varies depending on the type of role and type of entity.  It will require a separate filing for each role that an individual has.

For example, if I am a director of five companies and PSC of three, I only need need to complete IDV once, but must file my UID 8 times, even if some of those roles are in the same entity. 

 

Who needs to send what to Companies House, when and how?

Who: Individual directors, PSCs, LLP members, and certain individuals representing corporate stakeholders. This is an obligation that applies to UK entities and overseas companies with UK establishments.

What: The stakeholder has to provide to Companies House: (i) their UID (or personal code), confirmation that they have completed IDV (which seems a bit odd as the UID confirms this!) and (iii) if their name at Companies House is different to the name that was used when they completed IDV, an explanation for why that might be different.

When & how:

• UK entities:
  • New directors/LLP members – must include their UID in the appointment (e.g. AP01) or incorporation filing (e.g INo1).  
  • Existing directors/LLP members – must include their UID in the first confirmation statement filed after 18 Nov 2025.
• Overseas entities with UK establishments
  • New directors – must include their UID when registering the establishment or on appointment.
  • Existing directors – must include their UID by the next anniversary of the establishment’s opening after 18 Nov 2025

• PSCs (UK entities) are a bit more complex:
  • New PSC  – can include their UID as part of the relevant incorporation or notification filing (e.g the IN01).  However, if you are unable to obtain the UID from a PSC at this time, the PSC will have 14-days from the original filing in which to file their UID and they can only do this via a new electronic-only method (which Kudocs will support, but also available via WebFiling).
  • Existing PSCs  – i.e. those who are already a PSC on 18 November 2025:
    • Where the PSC is also a director of the company (and we presume where the PSC is also an LLP member) the PSC must file their UID within 14 days of the confirmation statement date.  This effectively aligns the 14-day UID filing deadline with the confirmation statement deadline (which is 14 days after the confirmation statement date).  This can only be done via the new electronic-only method.
    • Where the PSC is not a director of the company (and we presume where the PSC is also not an LLP member) they must file their UID within 14 days of the start of their birth month, irrespective of the confirmation statement date.  So even if a company’s confirmation statement is not due until say June 2026, its PSCs (if they are not also directors) may need to file their UIDs before that date. This can only be done via the new electronic-only method.

The obligation to include UIDs from 18 November does not apply to limited partnerships, nominated directors of corporate directors, corporate LLP members or relevant officers of RLEs.  We await further details from Companies House on timings as well as other practical requirements for these stakeholders.

 

How is Kudocs supporting these changes?:

Although Kudocs is not providing the IDV service once a stakeholder has a UID, they can store this in Kudocs now, in anticipation of it being needed later.  We have also released new features and reports that show which entities and stakeholders need to provide their UIDs.

On 18 November 2025, we will deploy the necessary changes to Kudocs to support the new filing obligations.  Hopefully you wont notice much as everything will be effortless, but the changes will include:

• Making UID mandatory for incorporations and new director/ LLP appointments.
• Allowing PSC UIDs to be added to incorporations and notifications, but not mandatory.
• Checking for UIDs as part of the confirmation statement review process, and requiring all UIDs to be provided in order to submit a confirmation statement.
• A new feature to allow you to submit existing PSC UIDs directly to Companies House.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!  Any questions, please let us know!