Companies House Prosecutes Unverified Directors

The Insolvency Service secured its first convictions on 16 September for company directors who ignored the legal duty to verify their identity with Companies House, months after their own deadline had passed. The Companies House announcement names three directors fined at City of London Magistrates' Court.

One director of White (Reading Properties) Limited had not verified her identity at all until nine months after her deadline had passed. A director of J Isogony Apparel Limited only verified in late May, also months late. A third director had verified himself but let his co-director keep acting while unverified. The fines were small, from £80 to £307 plus costs and a victim surcharge, but they are the first sign that Companies House will let a case reach court rather than only chase it by letter.

The duty comes from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Anyone appointed as a company director since 18 November 2025 must verify their identity before they can act. Directors appointed earlier get a 12-month transition window that runs from when their company next files its confirmation statement, so plenty of small companies are only reaching their own deadline around now.

For a plumber, salon or trades business run through a limited company, this is worth checking today rather than after a reminder letter. Verification is free, done directly on the Companies House website, or through an authorised corporate service provider if an accountant handles filings. Any director who has not verified, and any company that lets them keep acting unverified, is exactly the exposure these prosecutions describe.

It has nothing to do with a website, but it sits next to the other legal small print a company's site is expected to carry: the registered company number, address and directors named on the site itself. What UK law actually requires a business website to show is worth a look while a confirmation statement is on the to-do list anyway, and the wider guide library covers the rest of the legal groundwork behind a small business site.