Companies House Identity Verification: Why Your New Company Leads Are Now More Reliable

Since 18 November 2025, every new director and person with significant control (PSC) registering at Companies House must verify their identity. It's the biggest change to UK company registration in decades — and if you use new company data for B2B sales, it just made your leads significantly better.

Here's a breakdown of what changed, what it means for data quality, and how B2B sellers should adapt their prospecting in 2026.

What Actually Changed at Companies House?

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCT Act) gave Companies House sweeping new powers. The headline change: identity verification is now mandatory for anyone registering as a director or PSC of a UK company.

Before November 2025, anyone could register a company with minimal checks. A name, an address, and a few form fields was all it took. This made it trivially easy to register companies with fake names, nominee directors, or stolen identities — and it meant that a significant chunk of Companies House data was unreliable.

Now, directors and PSCs must verify their identity either:

• Directly with Companies House — using the GOV.UK online identity verification service
• Via an authorised corporate service provider (ACSP) — such as an accountant, solicitor, or company formation agent who has verified their identity in person

The verification process requires government-issued photo ID and biometric checks. No more phantom directors.

The Timeline: What's Live and What's Coming

This is a phased rollout. But for anyone working with newly incorporated company data, the most important change is already live: every new company registered since 18 November 2025 has verified directors.

Why This Matters for B2B Lead Quality

If you've ever bought or used new company data for sales prospecting, you'll know the frustrations: fake names, non-existent addresses, companies registered purely for fraud or dormancy schemes. These were noise in your pipeline — wasted calls, bounced emails, dead ends.

Identity verification fundamentally changes that equation. Here's how:

1. Real People, Real Names

Every director name in a post-November 2025 incorporation is tied to a verified individual. When you're reaching out to "James Smith, Director of NewBuild Solutions Ltd," you can have far more confidence that James Smith is a real person who actually controls that company.

2. Fewer Shell Companies and Fraud Vehicles

The UK had a well-documented problem with fraudulent company registrations. Companies House itself acknowledged that the old system enabled economic crime. Identity verification creates a meaningful barrier to bulk-registering companies with fake identities.

For B2B sellers, this means a higher proportion of new companies in your data feed are genuine trading businesses — the kind that actually need accountants, insurance, websites, IT support, and business services.

3. Better Address Data

The ECCT Act also gave Companies House new powers to query and reject registered office addresses. Combined with identity verification, the registered addresses in new company records are more likely to be legitimate business or home addresses where the director can actually be reached.

4. Cleaner Compliance for Your Outreach

If you're running email campaigns or direct mail to new companies, data quality directly affects your compliance posture. Sending outreach to verified, real business contacts is far safer from a GDPR and PECR perspective than blasting messages to potentially fictitious registrations.

The Numbers: Q4 2025 Incorporations Under the New Rules

The first full quarter with identity verification in effect (October–December 2025) saw 184,888 new incorporations across the UK. Here's how that breaks down:

Two things stand out:

1. Incorporations are up 2% year-on-year — identity verification hasn't deterred legitimate business formation. People starting real companies don't mind verifying their identity.
2. Incorporations dropped 14.4% from Q3 to Q4 — partly seasonal (Q3 is always higher), but some of this likely reflects fraudulent or low-quality registrations being filtered out by the new requirements.

That 14.4% quarterly drop is actually good news for data users. It suggests the verification barrier is doing exactly what it should: reducing junk registrations while genuine business formation continues to grow.

How to Adapt Your Prospecting Strategy

Better data means you should adjust your approach. Here's what we recommend:

Increase Your Confidence in Day-One Outreach

Previously, reaching out to a company on the day it incorporated carried risk — some of those companies were never going to trade. With verified directors, day-one outreach is now more viable than ever. The company was registered by a real, verified person with genuine intent.

Personalise Using Director Names

Now that director names are verified, you can confidently use them in outreach. "Hi James" hits differently when you know James actually exists and registered the company himself. This is especially valuable for:

• Accountants — offering first-year accounts and tax registration
• Insurance brokers — quoting public liability and professional indemnity
• Web agencies — offering website packages to companies with no online presence
• IT support — setting up email, cloud tools, and cybersecurity basics
• Banks and fintechs — business account opening offers

Filter by SIC Code with More Confidence

SIC codes (the industry classification assigned at registration) are chosen by the director themselves. With verified directors, there's greater accountability for the accuracy of these codes. Your sector-targeted campaigns — whether you're going after construction, property, food & drink, or professional services — should see better hit rates.

Track the Verification Rollout for Existing Companies

Throughout 2026, existing directors are being required to verify their identities too. This means that even older company data on the register is gradually being cleaned up. If you also prospect established companies (not just new incorporations), the overall quality of Companies House data will improve steadily through the year.

What About the Existing Register?

The effective register currently stands at 4,876,981 companies. Most of these were registered before identity verification existed. Companies House is now working through the backlog:

• Existing directors receive letters from Companies House based on their registered birth month
• Each director gets a 14-day window to complete verification
• Failure to verify could eventually lead to restrictions on the company

This means the register is being cleaned in real time. Companies with unverified directors may face filing restrictions, making it easier to distinguish active, compliant businesses from dormant or abandoned ones.

What This Means for NewCo Data Subscribers

If you're already receiving daily new company data from NewCo Data, you're already benefiting from these changes. Every company in our daily feeds since late November 2025 has been registered under the new identity verification regime.

What that means in practice:

• Director names are verified — higher confidence in personalised outreach
• Fewer junk registrations — less noise in your daily data
• Better conversion rates — you're reaching real business owners, not phantoms
• Cleaner compliance — verified data strengthens your GDPR legitimate interest basis

We process 2,500+ new companies daily, enriched with director contact details, SIC codes, and registered addresses. With identity verification now in effect, that data has never been more reliable.

Key Takeaways

1. Identity verification is live — all new directors and PSCs registered since 18 November 2025 have verified their identity
2. Lead quality has improved — fewer fake registrations means more genuine businesses in your data
3. Incorporations remain strong — 184,888 in Q4 2025, up 2% year-on-year despite the new requirements
4. The existing register is being cleaned — existing directors are verifying throughout 2026
5. Day-one outreach is now more viable — verified directors mean higher confidence in immediate prospecting

The ECCT Act is the most significant reform to Companies House in its history. For B2B sellers who rely on new company data, it's unequivocally good news. The era of phantom directors and junk registrations is ending — and the companies showing up in your data feed are more real, more reachable, and more likely to buy.

Data sourced from Companies House Q4 2025 statistical release and the Changes to UK Company Law campaign.