Your Companies House personal code: where to find it, and what to do if it’s lost or not working

What the personal code is, and isn’t

You get one personal code, and you use it for every role you hold: a director of three companies gives the same code to each¹. It proves to Companies House that the person in that role has verified their identity¹.

It is not your company’s authentication code. That one is a 6-character code issued to the company, posted to its registered office, and used to authorise its online filings, “the equivalent of a company officer’s signature”⁴. Nor is it your UTR, the 10-digit tax reference HMRC gives you or your company⁶.

Where to find yours

It depends on how you verified¹:

• With GOV.UK One Login, online or in the app: sign in to Companies House and go to “Manage account”. Use the same email address you used to verify. If you verified after 8 July 2026, Companies House also emailed the code to you.
• At a Post Office: you get an email with your result, usually within a day of your visit. After a successful check you can sign in and see the code in “Manage account”³.
• Through an authorised agent (ACSP): Companies House emailed the code to the address the agent gave for you. Ask the agent which address they used if you can’t find it.

If an agent verified you, save the code to a Companies House account so you can always get it back: sign in, or create sign-in details, with the email address the code was sent to, confirm you’ve verified, enter the code and your date of birth¹.

Lost it, or never received it

Don’t verify a second time. Companies House says you’ll usually only need to verify once and must not verify again unless it tells you to². Instead:

1. Sign in to Companies House with each email address you might have used, and check “Manage account”¹.
2. Search your inbox for the email with your result or your code^1,3.
3. If an agent verified you, ask them, and ask them to contact Companies House if they gave the wrong email address¹.
4. If you think someone else has your code, contact Companies House. It can cancel the code and email you a new one¹.

“Not working”: the usual causes

If your code won’t connect to the director or PSC on the register, Companies House gives three common reasons¹:

• A typing mistake in the code. Check all 11 characters.
• Your date of birth is wrong on its records. When you use your code, Companies House may ask for your date of birth to check your details match. Check the date it holds by signing in to WebFiling, and correct it before you try again¹.
• An agent verified you with the wrong details. Ask them to update what they gave Companies House¹.

Giving it to your company

Directors give their code in the company’s next confirmation statement, and Companies House will not accept that statement until every director has verified⁵. You can share your code with someone who files for you, such as an accountant, but keep it as safe as your UTR^1,2.

When you file your confirmation statement with Fileyear, you enter each director’s code as one of the steps, and it is filed with the statement. Fileyear doesn’t verify identities: if a director has no code yet, they verify first, which is free through GOV.UK One Login². The full rules, including the separate deadlines for PSCs, are in Companies House identity verification.

Which code to use where

• Confirmation statement: the company’s authentication code to sign in and file, and each director’s personal code inside the statement^5,4.
• Appointing a new director: the new director’s personal code with the appointment¹.
• PSC verification: the PSC’s personal code, through Companies House’s own PSC service¹.
• Company Tax Return: neither. That uses HMRC’s references, such as the company’s UTR⁶.