PRESS RELEASE – for immediate release, Monday 19 October 2026
More than 800,000 UK company owners have already missed their Companies House identity date – and the British directors living abroad have the fewest ways out
Analysis of the full Companies House register by Welsh regulated firm Vaulex Group finds 1.41 million people with significant control of active UK companies still without an identity verification statement, 807,759 of them past the date Companies House set; 692,000 more dates fall in the next six weeks as the transition year ends on 18 November 2026. The firm has launched a free checker that shows any company who must verify and by when.
Penarth, Wales – 19 October 2026. Every director and every person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company must now verify their identity with Companies House under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. For existing directors the deadline is the company's next confirmation statement, and the transition year ends on 18 November 2026. The register now records, for each person, whether the verification statement has been supplied and the date Companies House wants it by.
Vaulex Group Ltd, an Authorised Corporate Service Provider registered with Companies House and supervised by HMRC, analysed the complete Companies House PSC snapshot published on 17 October 2026. Across active companies and their current individual PSCs it found:
- 4,144,344 positions with the verification statement supplied;
- 1,412,483 positions with no statement on the register and a Companies House date set;
- 807,759 of those already past their date;
- 240,759 falling due in October 2026 and 451,794 in November 2026.
Among British nationals living abroad the picture is sharper: 10,925 outstanding positions across 10,241 companies, 5,993 of them past their date. The largest groups are in the United Arab Emirates (1,097), the United States (974), Spain (831), France (802), Australia (518), Hong Kong (409), Portugal (402), Switzerland (400) and South Africa (283).
Those directors have the fewest ways out. The free route, GOV.UK One Login, works from abroad when a person has a passport with a chip, a phone that can read it and a face match that passes. When it does not – an older passport, no NFC phone, a changed name, a failed match – the fall-backs are security questions drawn from a UK credit file or an in-person check at a Post Office, neither of which is available to someone who left the UK years ago. The only other route the law allows is an authorised agent, an ACSP.
Zak Ali, founder of Vaulex Group, said: "The dates are not abstract. Companies House has set one for every person on this list and written to them. More than eight hundred thousand have already gone past it, and for the people living abroad the free route cannot always be used. We built the checker because the first problem is not verifying – it is finding out that you have to, and by when. Type your company, and it tells you."
Vaulex Group's free checker, Am I affected?, reads the live register for any UK company and shows each director and PSC, whether they have verified, and the date Companies House has set – with a flag on anyone living outside the UK. A version for accountants runs a whole client book at once. For people the free route cannot serve, Vaulex verifies British passport holders anywhere in the world from their phone, in three working days, for £149.99.
Ali added: "Companies House says a person who misses the date may be committing an offence and may face a financial penalty, and that a note will be published against their name. The company cannot file its confirmation statement until its directors have verified. An accountant with two hundred clients has a real problem on their hands this month, which is why the client-book checker is free."
What a director should do this week
- Find the company's confirmation statement date on the Companies House register – that is the deadline for every director.
- Check who must verify and who already has at guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected.
- Try GOV.UK One Login first if you have a chipped passport and an NFC phone. If it stops, use an ACSP rather than waiting.
- Once verified, provide the 11-character personal code for each role – with the confirmation statement for a directorship, and through the PSC verification service for a PSC role.
ENDS
Notes to editors
About Vaulex Group Ltd. A UK company service provider based at Vaulex House, Woodland Place, Penarth CF64 2EX: company formation, registered offices with every letter scanned the day it arrives, and identity verification. Registered with Companies House as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (AP021384); supervised by HM Revenue & Customs for anti-money-laundering purposes as a Trust or Company Service Provider (XLML00000218127); ICO registered (ZC087196). Founder Zak Ali holds the International Compliance Association's certificate in Anti-Money Laundering at Merit. Company number 17004770. Member of Chambers Wales.
Method. Companies House publishes a daily snapshot of every person with significant control (the PSC snapshot) and a monthly file of every company. Vaulex Group loaded the snapshot dated 17 October 2026 (33 files, 14.0 million PSC records) and the basic company data of 1 October 2026 (5.7 million companies). The analysis counts individual PSCs who have not ceased, at companies whose status is Active. "Statement supplied" means the register's identity_verification_details carry an appointment_verification_start_on date; "date set" means it carries an appointment_verification_statement_due_on date; "past their date" means that date is before 17 October 2026. "British nationals living abroad" means a nationality recorded as British (or English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish) and a country of residence outside the United Kingdom. The figures count positions, not people: a person who is a PSC of two companies appears twice. The method, and a daily-updated version of the figures, can be supplied on request.
The rules in brief. Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. New directors verify before appointment; new PSCs within 14 days. Existing directors verify when the company files its next confirmation statement due on or after 18 November 2025; an existing PSC who is also a director within 14 days of the confirmation statement date; an existing PSC who is not a director within the first 14 days of their birth month in the transition year, which ends on 18 November 2026. Companies House's letters to PSCs state: "If you do not comply, you may be committing an offence. You may face prosecution and a fine through the courts, or a financial penalty. In the future, we'll publish a note against your name on the Companies House public register."
Other published figures. Companies House estimated that 6 to 7 million people would need to verify by mid-November 2026. Industry figures published on 23 September 2026 (AccountingWEB) put 3.16 million directorships and 3.08 million PSC positions outstanding.
Press contact. Zak Ali, founder – clientsupport@vaulex.co.uk – 0333 305 1195 – available for interview (Zoom or phone) and for comment on the deadline, the register figures and the position of directors abroad. Images: the Vaulex Group logo and a statistics graphic at guides.vaulex.co.uk/press.