Companies House is in the middle of the biggest change to how it works in generations. Driven by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act — ECCTA — the reforms are rolling out in stages, with the aim of tackling the misuse of UK companies and making the public register more accurate and trustworthy. For an ordinary small company, the headlines can sound alarming, but the reality is manageable: a handful of things have genuinely changed, a couple need action from you, and one widely-feared change has actually been put on hold. Here's the practical picture.
Identity verification: the big one
The most significant change, and the one most likely to need action, is mandatory identity verification. Directors and people with significant control (PSCs) now have to verify their identity directly with Companies House — proving you are who you say you are — and you're then issued a unique personal code linked to your roles. You do it once, either through the government's GOV.UK One Login service or via an authorised provider.
This became mandatory in late 2025, and it has teeth: the confirmation statement is the trigger point, and the system will block your filing until verification is done. For a new director, you now have to be verified before your appointment can even be registered. If you haven't yet verified your identity, this is the thing to sort out, because an unverified director can stop the company filing — and a company that can't file its confirmation statement is heading towards strike-off.
Your company registers have changed
ECCTA has also overhauled the statutory registers companies keep. The requirement to maintain your own local registers of directors, directors' residential addresses, secretaries, and PSCs was removed in late 2025 — that information now lives at Companies House instead. The register of members, though, you still have to keep, and you can no longer keep it on the central register at Companies House; it has to be your own. The net effect is fewer registers to maintain, but more importance on keeping your Companies House filings accurate. We go through this in full in our guide to company statutory registers.
Your confirmation statement now does more
Several of these changes are bundled into the confirmation statement, which has quietly become a more substantial filing. On top of confirming your company details, it now requires you to confirm a "statement of lawful purpose" (that your intended activities are lawful), to have a registered email address on file, and — as above — to have completed identity verification before you can submit it. None of these is difficult, but they've turned a once-trivial annual tick-box into something with real requirements behind it. Our guide to the confirmation statement covers exactly what's now involved.
Registered office and email address
Two requirements that came in earlier are worth checking you've met. First, every company must now have an "appropriate" registered office address — meaning a real address where post will actually be received and dealt with. A PO Box on its own no longer qualifies. Companies House has been actively challenging addresses that don't meet this, and it can change a non-compliant address to a default one, giving you 28 days to supply a proper address before strike-off proceedings begin. Second, you must hold a registered email address with Companies House — it's not made public, but it's where they'll send official communications, so it needs to be one someone actually monitors.
Companies House now has teeth
A more fundamental shift sits behind all of this: Companies House has gone from being a largely passive recipient of filings to an active gatekeeper. It now has powers to query information, demand evidence to back it up, reject filings, and remove inaccurate material from the register. It has already used these powers at scale. The practical takeaway is simple — the accuracy of what you file genuinely matters now in a way it didn't before, so keeping your company's details correct and up to date is no longer just good housekeeping, it's something that can be actively challenged.
Costs have gone up
Funding all of this has pushed filing fees up. Most relevant for a small company, the digital fee for filing a confirmation statement rose to £50. Individually small, but worth knowing, particularly if you run more than one company.
What's been paused: the accounts changes
One set of reforms you may have read about has not gone ahead as planned. Proposals to force small companies to file full profit and loss accounts, to remove the option of abridged or "filleted" accounts, and to move to software-only filing of accounts at Companies House — all originally slated for 2027 — were paused at the start of 2026 and are under review, with a promise of at least 21 months' notice before anything changes. So for now, the existing accounts rules still apply, and there's nothing to act on. (Separately, HMRC does now require commercial software for company tax returns — we cover that in our guide to annual accounts and corporation tax.) It's worth keeping half an eye on the accounts reforms, but no more than that for the moment.
What to actually do
Cutting through all of it, here's the short list for a typical small company. Verify your identity with Companies House if you haven't — this is the priority, as it gates your confirmation statement. Check your registered office is a genuine address that meets the "appropriate" test, and that you've got a monitored registered email on file. Make sure your details on the public register — directors, PSCs, address — are accurate, because they can now be challenged. And keep your register of members current, since it's the one register you still have to maintain yourself. Do those, and the reforms are largely a non-event for you. Ignore them, and the consequences — a blocked confirmation statement, a challenged address, strike-off proceedings — are real.
Common questions
- Do I have to verify my identity with Companies House?
- Yes, if you're a director or a person with significant control. Verification is now mandatory, done once via GOV.UK One Login or an authorised provider, and your confirmation statement can't be filed until it's complete.
- Do I still need to keep a register of directors or PSC register?
- No. Those local registers were abolished in late 2025 — the information is held at Companies House now. You do still have to keep your own register of members.
- Can I still use a PO Box as my registered office?
- No. Your registered office must be an "appropriate" address where post is received and dealt with. Companies House can change a non-compliant address to a default and start strike-off if you don't fix it within 28 days.
- Are small companies now forced to publish full profit and loss accounts?
- Not currently. That reform, along with software-only accounts filing, was paused in early 2026 and is under review, with at least 21 months' notice promised before any change. The existing rules still apply for now.