If your charity is also a Company Limited by Guarantee, and you are a Trustee, you are also a Company Director.
Starting in Autumn 2025 (exact date yet to be confirmed), the Companies House will require all Company Directors to have verified their identity. This is to stop fraudulent Companies and Company Directors, which we hope doesn’t apply to Charitable Companies, but the requirement for you to have your identity verified does apply.
In addition, if any employee is your Company Secretary, they must also verify their identity. There are no exceptions because your organisation is a Charitable Company.
However, if your organisation is an unincorporated charity, a Charitable Trust, or a Charitable Incorporated Organisation there is no need to verify trustees’ identity.
If you or your Board of Trustees are unsure whether your group is a Charitable Company, go to the Charity Commission website, enter your charity’s name or number, click on the ‘Governance’ link and see what is shown as ‘Organisation type.’
If it shows ‘Charitable Company’, our guidance here applies; if it shows ‘Other’ or ‘Trust’ or ‘CIO’, you don’t have to take this identity verification.
If your organisational is a Community Interest Company (which is not a charity), the requirement to verify all your Directors and any Persons with Significant Control (usually also the Directors) applies, as below.
Guidance to identity verification can be found on the Companies House website. There are several routes to verification:
- Online via GOV.UK – you will need a Passport or UK Driving Licence
- In person at a Post Office (you may to check via the online route that this is possible for you)
- Using an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (often a Solicitor or Accountant; may be charged-for)
This is an action you must do individually and personally, as your Charitable Company won’t have access to the information required; it’s a bit like your personal Unique Taxpayer Reference for HMRC.
Once Companies House, via any of those routes, verifies your identity, you will be given a unique identifier known as a Companies House personal code. The code is personal to you, not your company or charity.
Keep this information secure, but you will need to share your personal code with your Charitable Company to enable them to file their accounts with Companies House, or share with your Charitable Company’s Accountant if they file for your organisation.
If you continue to act as a Director without verifying after it becomes a legal requirement, you will be committing an offence and could be fined and disqualified. Your Charitable Company and all other Directors/Trustees may also be committing an offence, and your organisation won’t be able to file its accounts, which is also an offence.