The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) is the most significant overhaul of Companies House powers since the original Companies Act framework. For accountants, the headline change is identity verification. Every existing director, every Person with Significant Control, and anyone filing on behalf of a company will, in turn, need a verified identity on record. The phased rollout is underway through 2026, and your firm is the first port of call when clients realise what it means in practice.
What identity verification actually means
Identity verification under ECCTA is not the same as the AML ID checks you already perform for client onboarding. It is a statutory verification of identity carried out either directly via the GOV.UK One Login service or indirectly through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). The outcome is a verification code attached to the individual on the Companies House register. New directors cannot be appointed and new companies cannot be incorporated without it. Existing directors must verify during their company's confirmation statement window once the requirement is switched on for their cohort.
Crucially, AML supervision under MLR 2017 is the gateway to becoming an ACSP. If your firm is supervised by HMRC, ICAEW, ACCA, CIOT or another professional body, you can register as an ACSP and verify identities for your clients. If you are not supervised, you cannot.
The rollout timeline you need to brief clients on
Companies House has been clear that this is a multi-stage rollout. The voluntary verification window opened in 2025. ACSP registration opened shortly after. Mandatory verification for new directors, members of LLPs and PSCs began rolling in from spring 2026, with existing directors required to verify at their next confirmation statement filing thereafter. Clients should treat the 12-month window from the date their cohort goes live as the absolute deadline - not the comfortable runway it sounds like.
- New incorporations: ID verification mandatory at incorporation
- New director appointments: verified before Companies House accepts the AP01
- Existing directors and PSCs: verify by next CS01 once the requirement is live for the cohort
- Anyone filing on behalf of a company: verified personally or via a registered ACSP
- Failure to verify becomes a criminal offence once the transition period closes
Should your firm become an ACSP?
For most UK accounting practices, the answer is yes. Becoming an ACSP keeps verification inside your firm, lets you charge for it, and prevents the awkward situation where a client gets stuck because their preferred verification route fails. Registration is done via Companies House, requires confirmation of your AML supervisor, and obliges you to keep verification records for seven years.
The operational cost is real but manageable. You need a documented verification procedure, evidence retention, and clear sign-off authority within the firm. Many practices are folding ACSP verification into their existing client onboarding workflow rather than running it as a separate service line.
How to operationalise it across hundreds of clients
The trap most firms will fall into is reactive verification: waiting for clients to ring up and ask. A 200-client practice with an average of two directors per company is looking at 400 verifications over the transition window, plus every PSC and every new appointment. That is not something you manage from a spreadsheet.
Build a register of every director and PSC across your client base, mapped to the confirmation statement due date for each company. That gives you the natural deadline for verification. Then triage: directors who are also clients of your firm get verified during their next compliance touchpoint. Directors who are not clients (spouses, non-executive directors, family trust nominees) get a separate outreach because they will not respond to firm-level comms.
Where Accupe fits in the workflow
Accupe is not an ACSP and does not perform the verification itself - that has to be done either through One Login or through a firm registered as an ACSP. What Accupe does is surface the work. The Companies House integration auto-populates director and PSC data into each client record, and Compliance Radar flags which individuals still need verification ahead of the confirmation statement window. Your team sees the verification queue alongside every other compliance item, not in a separate tool.
Common client questions and the right answers
Expect questions about photo ID requirements, what happens if a director lives abroad, and whether a verified identity transfers between companies. The short answers: a passport or UK photocard driving licence is the standard, overseas directors verify via One Login with the same documents, and a verification stays valid across all the companies that director is involved with - they do not need to re-verify per company. Cover these in a one-page client briefing rather than answering them ad hoc by email forty times.
Penalties and enforcement reality
Companies House has been given genuine teeth under ECCTA - civil financial penalties, annotations on the register, and ultimately criminal sanctions for persistent failure. Early enforcement is likely to focus on companies that fail to verify after multiple reminders, and on filings made by unverified persons. The reputational risk for the underlying business is the bigger concern for most clients: a Companies House annotation flagging an unverified director will be visible to lenders, suppliers and prospective customers.
Closing
Identity verification under ECCTA is not a one-off compliance exercise - it is a structural change in how the register works. Firms that treat it as a project (map the population, register as an ACSP, build it into onboarding and confirmation statement workflow) will move clients through smoothly. Firms that treat it as an inbox problem will spend the second half of 2026 firefighting. The deadline is not negotiable, and the visibility tooling matters more than the verification itself.