Director, PSC, or both? The three Companies House verification windows

If you only remember one thing about Companies House identity verification, make it this: the deadline is set by the person's role, not by a date on the calendar. Two people in the same company can have verification windows months apart, and the same individual can be governed by different rules at two different companies. This guide breaks down the three windows, shows how to tell which applies, and explains why a single person can sit in more than one at once.

Which verification window applies to a person?

The window is decided by two questions: is the person a director, and are they a PSC? A director who is not a PSC verifies with the company's next confirmation statement. A person who is both a director and a PSC gets a 14-day window after that statement date. A PSC who is not a director verifies in the first 14 days of their birth month. The decision tree below captures the whole logic.

Window 1: existing directors and the confirmation statement

An existing director who is not a PSC must give their Companies House personal code with the company's next confirmation statement filed on or after 18 November 2025. There is no separate 14-day clock here; the obligation rides along with the statement. Because each company files its own confirmation statement on its own anniversary, a director of several companies meets this requirement separately for each one, against each company's date.

Window 2: director-PSCs and the 14-day clock

A person who is both a director and a PSC has the tightest rule of the three: a 14-day window that starts the day after the company's confirmation statement date. Companies House gives a worked example. If the confirmation statement date is 31 March 2026, that person must verify between 1 and 14 April 2026. Importantly, this clock is anchored to the statement date itself, not to the day you choose to file.

Window 3: PSC-only individuals and the birth-month rule

A PSC who is not also a director follows a rule that has nothing to do with the company's filing dates at all. They verify in the first 14 days of their birth month, as shown on the public register. If the register records a date of birth of March 1990, the window runs from 1 to 14 March. This is the window people forget, because it is invisible to anyone watching confirmation statement dates alone.

Why one person can sit in more than one window

A person verifies their identity only once and receives a single personal code that then covers every appointment they hold. So the verification act does not repeat. What changes from company to company is which deadline rule applies to them. Someone who is a director at one client and a PSC-only at another is governed by Window 1 (or 2) at the first and Window 3 at the second, even though a single verification satisfies both.

For a firm, this is the crux of the tracking problem. You are not tracking people, and you are not tracking companies; you are tracking role-by-company combinations, each carrying its own trigger. That is why a flat client list never quite captures the picture.

Mapping the three windows across a portfolio

The practical move is to classify every appointment by its window the moment you take the client on, then attach the relevant date: the confirmation statement date for Windows 1 and 2, the birth month for Window 3. The table below is the reference most firms end up rebuilding for themselves.

Frequently asked questions