What is the Companies House PROOF scheme?

The PROOF scheme, also known as the Protected Online Filing scheme, is a free service established by Companies House to protect your business from potential fraud.

Protecting your business from fraud is vital to ensure that you and your employees can continue operations.

Criminals committing fraud and corporate identity theft pose a serious risk to companies, but thankfully, the PROOF scheme helps to mitigate these risks.

In this article, we’re going to find out what the Companies House PROOF scheme is, how it works and how to join up.

What is the PROOF scheme?

The PROOF scheme is a free service that has been set up by Companies House as an extra layer of protection against potential fraud or identity theft.

It’s a really simple idea that involves preventing specified changes to your company from being made using physical paper forms.

Once registered into the PROOF scheme, Companies House stops accepting the paper versions of certain forms from your business. This includes documents covering changes to company officers, the registered office and certain company name changes.

Instead, these forms must normally be filed online using the company’s authentication code, increasing security and lowering the risk of fraud.

Historically, paper filings created an obvious vulnerability because someone could attempt to submit changes to a company’s details without having access to its online authentication code.

This poses a real threat for companies, as they could unwittingly have key information about their business changed by fraudsters.

How does the PROOF scheme work?

The PROOF scheme works by adding an extra level of protection against unauthorised paper changes to your company details and records.

There are certain documents that must be filed digitally once your company joins PROOF. Some of these forms include:

• Any changes to your registered office address.
• Any changes to appointed officers in your business, including personal details, appointments and resignations.
• Any changes to the company name by special resolution.

You can see the full list of forms covered by PROOF here.

Ensuring that the information Companies House holds about your business is accurate is vital to keep your business legitimate. In some cases, banks and financial lenders check company details via Companies House. If the details aren’t what you say they are, this could cause problems with an application.

An unfortunate reality for Companies House is that criminals, corporate identity thieves and fraudsters have used physical documents to essentially hijack a company by changing key details using paper filings.

Things like the personal details of company directors or the registered office address can be targeted, allowing corporate identity theft to occur.

With those key details changed, criminals can take fraud to the next level and attempt to apply for loans and other products under the company name.

Companies House identity verification

PROOF is no longer the only important Companies House measure designed to combat corporate fraud.

From 18 November 2025, identity verification became a legal requirement for company directors and people with significant control (PSCs), with the requirements being phased in for existing companies.

New directors must verify their identity before incorporating a company or being appointed to an existing company. Existing directors must provide their Companies House personal code in connection with their company’s confirmation statement during the transition period. PSCs are also subject to identity verification requirements.

You can find out more in our guide to Companies House identity checks for directors, or read the official Companies House identity verification guidance.

PROOF and identity verification are separate protections. PROOF prevents specified paper filings being used to alter company records, while identity verification helps Companies House establish that directors and PSCs are who they claim to be.

How to join the PROOF scheme

Signing up your business to the PROOF scheme is really straightforward. You need to use the Companies House PROOF service and make sure that your company is registered for online filing first.

When you sign into the online filing service, follow these steps:

1. Select the ‘Join PROOF (Protected Online Filing)’ link near the padlock icon at the top of the overview screen.
2. Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
3. Select ‘Protect this company’.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you should receive an email to notify you whether the application has been successful.

After signing up, it’s important to let those in your company know how to file documents online with Companies House.

They will require the company’s authentication code to file online, and Companies House will reject paper versions of forms covered by PROOF unless the appropriate paper-filing consent procedure is followed.

Keep your authentication code secure. Anyone who knows it may be able to change your company’s details online, so only give it to people you trust to make filings for the company. Companies House has guidance on protecting your company authentication code.

Get alerts when something is filed for your company

There is another simple and free Companies House service worth using alongside PROOF.

The Follow service sends you an email alert when Companies House accepts a new transaction for a company. The email includes a link to the company’s filing history so you can check what has been submitted.

You can follow your own company through the Companies House register. This provides a useful early warning if something appears on the company’s record which you were not expecting.

The benefits of using the PROOF scheme

The PROOF scheme has a few key benefits for companies to make it worthwhile to sign up.

The biggest benefit is that it adds an extra layer of protection against potential corporate identity theft by refusing to accept specified physical documents through Companies House.

The other main benefit of using PROOF is that the protected filings are made electronically rather than relying on paper forms.

You don’t have to wait for a physical document before filling it out, and you aren’t relying on the postal service to send and receive the relevant documents.

For a small limited company, using PROOF, Companies House identity verification, filing alerts and a securely held authentication code together provides a much stronger defence against unauthorised changes to the company’s public record.