The first criminal prosecutions for failure to complete ID verification, as required by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“ECCTA”), have taken place. The ID verification regime under ECCTA was implemented on 18th November 2025 and, during the transitional year, all directors of UK companies and members of LLPs, as well as directors of overseas companies with UK establishments, must verify their ID in the prescribed manner and provide Companies House with their personal code on the company’s annual confirmation statement.
Failure to complete IDV is, as we have written about previously in our article Detailed look into ID Verification for Directors., a criminal offence under ECCTA both for the director who has failed to do so and for the other directors. However, lack of IDV does not invalidate anything done by that director or the company.
Two of the directors prosecuted had failed to do their IDV within the time prescribed by ECCTA and were fined. The third director was fined for failing to take to take reasonable steps to prevent another director (one of the two prosecuted) from continuing to act while unverified, given his legal responsibility as a fellow director.
The prosecutions demonstrate that action will not only be taken against those who fail to complete ID verification but also other directors who allow fellow directors to continue to be on the board without verifying their ID. Persistent failure to verify ID could result in disqualification of a director.
The transitional year for director IDV ends on 17thNovember 2026, by which time all directors should have completed their IDV. It will be interesting to see what Companies House does about directors who have failed to do so and whether there will be more criminal prosecutions and, possibly, disqualification proceedings.
Individual PSCs are also required to complete IDV during the transitional year – there have not, as yet, been any publicised actions taken against an individual PSC who has not completed their IDV. The company and its directors are not criminally liable if a PSC fails to complete IDV – only the PSC themself is.
For more information on how and when to complete IDV, visit What you need to know about identity verification | Brodies LLP which includes detailed FAQs.
If you wish to discuss any of the topics raised in this blog further, please reach out to a member of our corporate team.
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