How to Become a Nominee Director in the UK

To become a nominee director in the UK, move through a series of checks rather than treating an online form as the appointment. Confirm that you can legally and practically serve, verify the provider and specific company, complete each identity process for its stated purpose, review the final terms and consent only when you can make independent decisions. Screening, matching and KYC do not guarantee a role or fee.

The route below is provider-neutral and owns the pre-appointment decision gates. Compare it with a service’s published how-it-works process, but require evidence at every stage. If you have already expressed interest, use the separate guide to what happens after registration for the post-registration sequence.

Start with nine separate decision gates

Each gate answers a different question:

1. Am I legally eligible and practically suitable?
2. Do I understand the office and its duties?
3. Can I verify the provider?
4. Is the initial data request proportionate?
5. Which identity or due-diligence process is taking place?
6. What do I know about the proposed company?
7. Are the final terms workable?
8. Is formal consent accurate and informed?
9. Am I ready to oversee the company?

You should be able to stop between gates. Providing data or discussing a possible match is not consent to an unidentified directorship.

1. Check eligibility and suitability

Under the general director appointment rules, a natural-person director is normally at least 16 and need not live in the UK. Disqualification and some insolvency restrictions may prevent a person from acting.

A programme may impose stricter criteria, such as accepting only applicants aged 18 or over who ordinarily live in the UK. These are programme rules, not universal law. Check the current eligibility page and do not treat acceptance as legal advice on your circumstances.

Suitability goes further. Ask whether you can read reports, respond in time, challenge the person who nominated you and obtain independent help. Review employment restrictions, professional rules, existing directorships and relevant tax or benefit effects. Company law does not generally require a previous-director qualification, but inexperience does not lower the duty of care.

Stop here if you cannot devote attention, obtain information or say no.

2. Learn what the office requires

Companies House records a director, not a reduced-duty nominee. The general duties in Companies Act 2006, sections 171 to 177 include acting within powers, promoting the company’s success, independent judgement, reasonable care and proper handling of conflicts and benefits.

Managers can run daily operations and advisers can prepare work. The director still needs enough information to supervise delegation and decide matters that come to the board. If an offer is presented as lending a name, passive income or automatic signing, do not proceed.

Read the full director responsibilities guide before supplying sensitive information.

3. Identify and verify the provider

Record the legal entity name, company number, address, responsible contact, complaints route, data controller and exact service. Find out whether it introduces candidates or selects and helps appoint them.

Regulation 12 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 includes acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a director by way of business within TCSP services. The classification is fact-specific. Where it applies, verify the provider’s claimed AML supervisor and active registration using an official source.

An ACSP is a separate concept. A provider that performs Companies House identity verification through that route must have current authorisation. Neither AML supervision nor ACSP status should be inferred from a logo or the word “compliant”.

Before sharing sensitive data, read the privacy notice. It should identify the controller, purposes, lawful basis, recipients, retention, rights and contact. Apply the ICO’s data-minimisation principle by asking why each item is necessary and whether redacted or less intrusive evidence is accepted. Never disclose passwords, personal one-time codes or remote access credentials during identity checks.

4. Keep the initial expression of interest limited

An early form should collect only what is needed for the stated assessment. Save the submitted information, acknowledgements and privacy notice.

Do not sign blank or undated documents, grant open-ended authority or consent to an unknown company. Screening may examine programme criteria and conflicts; it cannot certify that a suitable appointment exists or that Companies House approves the offer.

If detailed documents are requested immediately, ask why they are needed at this stage. The answer should identify the purpose and recipient. Urgency is not a lawful basis.

5. Separate three kinds of identity check

Similar documents may be requested for different reasons.

Provider screening

This is the provider’s own fraud-prevention or applicant process. Its privacy notice governs the data. Collecting a passport does not automatically satisfy Companies House.

AML/KYC

A regulated provider may have to identify its customer and beneficial owner, understand ownership and control, assess purpose and risk, and monitor the relationship. Checking the candidate alone does not replace checks on the owner, client or company.

Ask who the customer is and why. Your verified identity cannot make an opaque business transparent.

Companies House identity verification

Mandatory verification began on 18 November 2025. A new director verifies in connection with incorporation or appointment and provides a personal code. Use the official GOV.UK One Login or ACSP routes.

The code belongs to you and links your verified identity to each role. Give it only to a trusted filing party for a genuine Companies House purpose. Verification confirms identity, not the legitimacy of a provider, company or appointment.

6. Investigate the named company

A potential match begins specific due diligence. Obtain:

• the company number, articles and filing history;
• latest accounts and current financial information;
• shareholders, PSCs, beneficial owners and group structure;
• directors, managers and professional advisers;
• an intelligible business model and reason for the appointment;
• material contracts, liabilities, disputes and permissions;
• tax and filing status; and
• an explanation of source and use of funds.

Compare the explanation with official records and source documents. Companies House records filings; it does not endorse the business or promise that every statement is true.

Ask why another director is needed and what information they will receive. Stop if ownership is hidden, material history is unexplained or you are asked to mislead a bank, platform, HMRC or Companies House. Use the appointment red-flags checklist before reviewing terms.

7. Examine the final appointment package

The documents should identify the company and parties, role, authority, information rights, decisions, reporting, fee, payroll, expenses, conflicts, data use, term, resignation and disputes.

Test the practical points:

• Can you inspect records and contact advisers?
• Can you challenge, defer and refuse?
• Who pays, when is a fee earned and how will PAYE be handled?
• What happens if reports are missing or wrong?
• What notice and company steps apply to resignation?
• What do the indemnity and D&O wording exclude?

Directorship fees paid for holding the office are generally employment income and normally handled through PAYE. The word nominee and an invoice do not automatically make the fee self-employed income.

An indemnity cannot erase statutory duties or every personal exposure. Insurance has terms, limits and exclusions. Have an independent solicitor review the documents rather than accepting “fully protected” as an answer.

8. Consent only to an accurate formal appointment

The company appoints a director under its articles and required corporate decisions. Consent should name the specific company and follow adequate review. Complete identity verification through the official route and check the appointment date, service address and other filed details.

Companies House generally publishes the director’s name, nationality, month and year of birth, service address and appointment details. A full birth date and usual residential address are normally held off the public register, but private information can become public if used in a public field or document.

Keep the final agreement, consent, resolutions, filing confirmation, conflict declarations and verification record. A match message, contract draft or completed KYC check does not prove that appointment occurred.

9. Set up oversight before the first decision

Agree reporting dates, record access, filing responsibilities, escalation contacts and the way decisions will be minuted. Know who provides management accounts and how to reach independent legal or insolvency advice.

If information is withheld, a false filing is proposed or unexplained financial access is demanded, record the concern and withhold approval. Seek advice promptly. Resignation may be necessary, but it does not remove the public history or liability arising during the appointment.

Prepare evidence, not a universal document bundle

You may need proof of identity or address for a clearly explained process, but there is no single passport-selfie-bank-statement package that every candidate must send to every provider. The appropriate evidence depends on the process, route and risk.

Keep your own copies of:

• the provider identity and privacy information you relied on;
• submitted forms and a record of documents supplied;
• official register checks for the provider and company;
• the company due-diligence pack and unanswered questions;
• independent advice;
• the final appointment and fee terms;
• Companies House verification confirmation; and
• the appointment filing evidence.

Record when questions were answered. Do not retain another person’s sensitive information without a lawful reason, and do not send extra data “just in case”. An evidence file supports careful decisions; it is not a substitute for them.

Choose advice that is independent of the offer

The provider and business owner can explain their documents, but neither can decide whether accepting is in your interests. They may also be the client, fee payer or proposed indemnifier.

An independent solicitor can review information rights, authority, conflicts, resignation and indemnity wording. A tax adviser can check a package that mixes directorship fees with other services. Existing financial difficulty calls for timely insolvency advice, while an employment or regulated-profession issue may require a specialist in that field.

Give the adviser the complete current documents and the company facts, not only a promoter’s summary. Ask which evidence is missing, which terms require amendment and which risks cannot be transferred. Advice cannot guarantee safety, but it can identify an assumption before it becomes an appointment.

Pause if the promoter discourages advice, imposes an unreasonable deadline or insists that only its adviser may be used. Informed consent requires both information and practical freedom to refuse.

Two illustrative routes

A route that can move forward

A candidate verifies the provider, supplies proportionate data after receiving privacy information and later receives a named company pack. Ownership, purpose, accounts and terms are coherent. The candidate has time for independent review and can decline. Moving to the next gate may be reasonable, but appointment and payment remain uncertain.

A route that should stop

An unknown contact promises quick payment, requests a passport and bank login, will not name the company and describes the role as lending a name. Blank signature pages arrive with a same-day deadline. The candidate should not sign, upload or share codes. Preserve the communication and use official reporting routes if fraud or identity misuse is suspected.

These examples are illustrative, not customer cases.

Decide from complete evidence

Before consenting, confirm that you understand the duties and public record, have verified the provider and company, know why each check occurs, have reviewed the final agreement and can question, refuse and resign.

“Not sure” means pause. Becoming a director results from a valid, informed appointment, not from joining a list or completing KYC. There is no penalty in deciding that the role is not suitable for you.