The pace is picking up on implementation of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), which will introduce a radical transformation of how people deal with Companies House. If you need a refresher, more details can be found in our toolkit here. Companies House has updated its transition plan, key dates of which are:

• 25 February 2025 – authorised corporate service providers (ACSPs) will be able to register as such (in order to be an ACSP, you must be an entity such as a firm of accountants, legal advisers or company formation agent who is registered with a supervisory body for anti-money laundering (AML) purposes and have an existing obligation to carry out customer due diligence checks on clients).
• 25 March 2025 - individuals will be able to voluntarily verify their identity from this date, although implementation of a mandatory identity verification regime is not currently expected until autumn 2025.

These timeframes are only indicative but were reinforced by The Registrar (Identity Verification and Authorised Corporate Service Providers) Regulations 2025 being passed on 5 February 2025 (coming into force 25 February 2025). They set out the information and types of evidence that individuals will be required to provide when applying to verify their identity under the regime, which will be carried out either directly via Companies House or indirectly through an ACSP. They are supplemented by three sets of registrar’s rules.

The role of the ACSP will be key to many companies and individuals whose filings are undertaken by their professional advisers. By becoming an ACSP, which is a process requiring the entity to be verified at Companies House, the ACSP can make filings at Companies House on behalf of clients and also choose to carry out ID verification for clients.

Companies House has issued guidance (on 19 February) on:

• Applying to register as a Companies House authorised agent - GOV.UK
• Being an Authorised Corporate Service Provider - GOV.UK
• How to meet Companies House identity verification standard - GOV.UK

Registering as an ACSP

With registration opening in less than a week, it’s important to start the ball rolling internally now if you intend to apply for ACSP registration. We (Stevens & Bolton LLP) intend to register as an ACSP and we look forward to supporting our clients through the coming changes. Please contact either of us or your usual Stevens & Bolton contact if you have any questions.