Information about British Car Number Plates

Main article: Vehicle registration plate

British number plates (1982 – 2001 system), as observed in 2004

British car number plates have existed in the United Kingdom since 1904. All motor-powered road vehicles, including cars but excepting the official cars of the reigning monarch, are required by law to display them.

The Motor Car Act 1903, which came into force on 1 January 1904, required all vehicles to be entered onto the Government's vehicle register, and to carry index plates. The Act was passed in order that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident or contravention of the law. Vehicle registration index plates in the UK are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted dimensions of the plate and its lettering set down in law.

Within the UK itself there are currently two numbering and registration systems: one for Great Britain, which is administered by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), and one for Northern Ireland, administered by the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA), however both have equal status. Other schemes relating to the UK are also listed below.

Colour and dimensions (United Kingdom)

Current plates have black characters on reflective white reflective material (for the front plate) or on reflective yellow reflective material (for the rear plate). These are the colours used in the common EU plate format (though not all other EU states use the two background colours in this same way).

Older plates had white, grey or silver characters on a black background. This style of plate was phased out in 1972, and is now legal to be carried only on vehicles built prior to 1 January 1973.

Front number plates are 520 mm x 111 mm (20.5" x 4 ³/₈") in size. Rear plates may be 520 mm x 111 mm (Standard), 285 mm x 203 mm (Square), 533 mm x 152 mm (large).

Motorcycles formerly had a double-sided number plate on top of the front mudguard, curved to follow the contour of the wheel and visible from the sides. The requirement for the front number plate was dropped in 1975 because of the severe danger these presented to pedestrians in the event of a collision.

Great Britain

Current system

The current system for Great Britain was introduced in 2001. Each registration index consists of seven characters. From left to right the characters consist of :

• An area code (the local memory tag) consisting of two letters, the first relating to the region, the second the local registration office (see British car number plate identifiers);
• A two-digit age identifier, which changes twice a year, in March and September. The code is either the last two digits of the year itself (e.g. "05" for 2005) or else has 50 added (e.g. 55 for September 2005) if issued from September to February of the following year;
• An arbitrary three-letter sequence with no specific meaning beyond that of uniquely distinguishing each of the vehicles displaying the same initial four-character area and age sequence. The letters I and Q are excluded from the three-letter sequence, as are combinations that may appear offensive (including those in foreign languages).

In 2007 the DVLA exceptionally issued 'TN07' prefixed registrations for some Edinburgh registered vehicles, instead of the expected 'SN07'. This was stated to be because of potential offence caused by interpreting 'SN07' as 'SNOT'. This is the first known use of the 'T' code as the first letter, as it was not allocated to a region in the 2001 system. Yet, TF07 registrations have been showing up around Scotland, most commonly in Glasgow. This has arisen some confusion as to why TF07 registrations are being used. Even more recently, it has been observed that TP07 registration number plates are being issued as well.

With this scheme, a buyer can in theory determine the year of first registration of a car without having to look it up, and the preceding area code letters are usually remembered by witnesses — it is then quite simple to narrow down suspect vehicles to a much smaller number by checking the authority's database without having to know the full number. This scheme should have sufficient numbers to run until 2050.

When introduced, the new plates included a subtly re-drawn version of Charles Wright's original 1935 font, that has been narrowed (condensed) from 57 mm to 50 mm to allow space for the extra letter and the blue 'GB' euro surround that is now an option on plates. Similar in many ways but perhaps less drastic than Germany's FE-Schrift number-plate font (2001), it accentuates the differences in the form of similar characters like '8' and 'B' or 'D' and '0' with block serifs to improve the legibility of a plate from a distance - especially for the Automatic Number Plate Recognition software of speed cameras and CCTV. This accentuation also discourages the tampering that is sometimes practised with the use of black insulating tape or paint to change letterforms (P to R, 9 to 8 for example) or with the inclusion of carefully positioned black 'fixing screw' dots that alter the appearance of letters on some vanity plates.

The option of the EU stars and the country identifier letters ´GB´ is claimed to be a registered design - number 2053070 - registered at the UK Patent Office in 1995 by David and Nansi Mottram [1]. However, the blue strip with European flag and country identifier was introduced by Ireland in 1991, before the Mottrams registered their version.

Registrations having a combination of characters that are particularly appealing (resembling a name, for example) are auctioned each year.

Vehicles registered under previous numbering systems continue to retain their original registration plates. Subject to certain conditions, registration plates can be transferred between vehicles by the vehicle owner; some of these transfers involve tens of thousands of British Pounds (GBP) changing hands, due to the desirability of a specific letter/number combination.

History

Before 1932

The first series of number plates were issued in 1903 and ran until 1932, using the series A1–YY9999. The letter or pair of letters indicated the local authority in whose area the vehicle was registered, for example A — London, B — Lancashire, C — West Riding of Yorkshire, etc. In England and Wales the letter codes were initially allocated in order of population size (by the 1901 census), whilst Scotland and Ireland had special sequences incorporating the letters "S" and "I" respectively, which were allocated alphabetically: IA = Antrim, IB = Armagh, etc. When a licensing authority reached 9999, it was allocated another two letter mark, but there was no pattern to these subsequent allocations as they were allocated on a first come first served basis.

1932 to 1963

By 1932, the available numbers within this scheme were running out, and an extended scheme was introduced. This scheme consisted of three letters and three numbers, taken from the series AAA1 to YYY999. Note that certain letters — I, Q and Z — were never used, as they were considered too easy to mistake for other letters or numbers, or were reserved for special use, such as the use of I and Z for Irish registrations and Q for temporary imports. (After independence, the Irish Republic continued to use this scheme until 1986, and Northern Ireland still uses it.)

The three-letter scheme preserved the area letter codes as the second pair of letters in the set of three, and the single letter area codes were deleted (since prefixing a single letter code would create a duplicate of a two-letter code). In some areas, the available numbers with this scheme started to run out in the 1950s, and in those areas, a reversed sequence was introduced, i.e. 1AAA–999YYY. The ever-increasing popularity of the car can be gauged by noting that these sequences ran out within ten years, and by the beginning of the 1960s, a further change was made in very popular areas, introducing 4-number sequences with the one and two letter area codes, but in the reverse direction to the early scheme (i.e. 1A –9999YY).

1960s to 1982

In 1963, numbers were running out once again, and an attempt was made to create a national scheme to alleviate the problem. The three letter, up to three number system was kept, but a letter suffix was added, which changed every year. In this scheme, numbers were drawn from the range AAA1A–YYY999A for the first year, then AAA1B–YYY999B for the second year, and so on. Some areas did not adopt the year letter for the first two years, sticking to their own schemes, but in 1965 adding the year letter was made compulsory.

As well as yielding many more available numbers, it was a handy way for car buyers to know the age of the vehicle immediately. At first the year letter changed on January 1 every year, but car retailers started to notice that car buyers would tend to wait towards the end of the year for the new letter to be issued, so that they could get a "newer" car. This led to major peaks and troughs in sales over the year, and to help flatten this out somewhat the industry lobbied to get the month of registration changed from January to August. This was done in 1967, a year that had two letter changes: "E" came in January, and "F" came in August. The final August change was in 1998.

1983 to 2001

By 1982, the year suffixes had reached Y and so from 1983 onwards the sequence was reversed again, so that the year letter — starting again at "A" — preceded the numbers then the letters of the registration. The available range was then A1AAA–Y999YYY. Towards the mid-1990s there was some discussion about introducing a unified scheme for Europe, which would also incorporate the country code of origin of the vehicle, but after much debate such a scheme was not adopted due to lack of countries willing to participate. The changes in 1983 also brought the letter Q into use - although on a very small and limited scale. It was used on vehicles of indeterminate age, such as those assembled from kits, substantial rebuilds, or imported vehicles where the documentation is insufficient to determine the age. It was seen as an aid to consumer protection.

By the late 1990s, the range of available numbers was once again starting to run out, exacerbated by a move to biannual changes in registration letters (March and September) in 1999 to smooth out the bulge in registrations every August, so a new scheme needed to be adopted. Rather than stick with a variation of the ad-hoc numbering that had existed for nearly a century, it was decided to research a system that would be easier for crash or car crime witnesses to remember and clearer to read, yet still fit within a normal standard plate size.

Year letters

Suffix series

Letter	Dates of issue
A	January 1963 – December 1963
B	January 1964 – December 1964
C	January 1965 – December 1965
D	January 1966 – December 1966
E	January 1967 – July 1967
F	August 1967 – July 1968
G	August 1968 – July 1969
H	August 1969 – July 1970
J	August 1970 – July 1971
K	August 1971 – July 1972
L	August 1972 – July 1973
M	August 1973 – July 1974
N	August 1974 – July 1975
P	August 1975 – July 1976
R	August 1976 – July 1977
S	August 1977 – July 1978
T	August 1978 – July 1979
V	August 1979 – July 1980
W	August 1980 – July 1981
X	August 1981 – July 1982
Y	August 1982 – July 1983

Prefix series

Letter	Dates of issue
A	August 1983 – July 1984
B	August 1984 – July 1985
C	August 1985 – July 1986
D	August 1986 – July 1987
E	August 1987 – July 1988
F	August 1988 – July 1989
G	August 1989 – July 1990
H	August 1990 – July 1991
J	August 1991 – July 1992
K	August 1992 – July 1993
L	August 1993 – July 1994
M	August 1994 – July 1995
N	August 1995 – July 1996
P	August 1996 – July 1997
R	August 1997 – July 1998
S	August 1998 – February 1999
T	March 1999 – August 1999
V	September 1999 – February 2000
W	March 2000 – August 2000
X	September 2000 – February 2001
Y	March 2001 – August 2001

New series post-2001

Year	March	September
2001	—	51
2002	02	52
2003	03	53
2004	04	54
2005	05	55
2006	06	56
2007	07	57
2008	08	58
2009	09	59
2010	10	60
2011	11	61
2012	12	62
2013	13	63
2014	14	64
2015	15	65
2016	16	66
2017	17	67
2018	18	68
2019	19	69
2020	20	70
2021	21	71
2022	22	72
2023	23	73
2024	24	74
2025	25	75
2026	26	76
2027	27	77
2028	28	78
2029	29	79
2030	30	80
2031	31	81
2032	32	82
2033	33	83
2034	34	84
2035	35	85
2036	36	86
2037	37	87
2038	38	88
2039	39	89
2040	40	90
2041	41	91
2042	42	92
2043	43	93
2044	44	94
2045	45	95
2046	46	96
2047	47	97
2048	48	98
2049	49	99

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland current registrations plates take the form "ABC 1000", where "BC" represents the county or city and "A" denotes the position in the series. The numbering begins at 1 and ends at 9999. After 9999, the next letter in alphabetical order is used at position "A" and the numbering series begins with 1000 once again. For example, in 2005 County Antrim is using the series "KZ", having already completed "IA" and "DZ". After "KZ" is exhausted, it will use "RZ". The full list of county codes appears below.

The county letters without the series position identifier were used previously on their own, in the same order that they are now being used. After all these registrations had been issued, the extra letter was added to increase capacity. Numbers below 1000 are now not issued to the public in the normal way but instead held back by DVLNI and supplied at a premium as vanity plates.

This system was also used in the Republic of Ireland until 1987 as part of an original British all-Ireland system. It was similar to an older system used in Great Britain, but the use of the letters I and Z is unique to Ireland. In this system, two-letter county codes existed for all counties or administrative areas in Ireland, but are now used only in Northern Ireland. (See also: Irish Vehicle Registration Plates)

The DVA are considering adopting the system used in the rest of the UK, using I as the first letter (no confusion could be made with 1 as it would be followed by another letter).

Northern Ireland licence plates are used often in Great Britain as vanity plates to cheaply hide the age of an older vehicle.

The County Fermanagh registrations KIL, CIG and NIG were deemed inappropriate and will never be issued.

The European Union standard for number plates causes some degree of resentment in Northern Ireland as the internationally recognised number-plate code for all of the United Kingdom is 'GB' for Great Britain, which can appear to exclude Northern Ireland. However, as Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain, and is part of the island of Ireland, some people may choose to use an 'IRL' version, e.g. |IRL| ACZ 0000|, although this is incorrect in terms of the European numbering system and is illegal according to UK number plate regulations. There are Northern Ireland registration plates which, quite unofficially, use the EU style blue strip on the left hand side with no country code written; i.e. the blue strip just shows the European stars. Another unofficial codes are "NI" and "NIrl".

Proposals were made to change the code to UK, but this came to nothing.

County codes

AZ — Belfast BZ — Down CZ — Belfast DZ — Antrim EZ — Belfast FZ — Belfast GZ — Belfast HZ — Tyrone IA — Antrim IB — Armagh IG — Fermanagh IJ — Down

IL — Fermanagh IW — Londonderry JI — Tyrone JZ — Down KZ — Antrim LZ — Armagh MZ — Belfast NZ — Londonderry OI — Belfast OZ — Belfast PZ — Belfast

RZ — Antrim SZ — Down TZ — Belfast UI — Derry City UZ — Belfast VZ — Tyrone WZ — Belfast XI — Belfast XZ — Armagh YZ — Londonderry QNI — Re-registration within Northern Ireland

Crown Dependencies

The Crown Dependencies of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man have number plates that differ from those used in the UK.

Jersey

Jersey number plates consist of the letter 'J' followed by one to six digits, with hire cars originally having a letter 'H' in white on a red background. Plates now incorporate the coat of arms of Jersey. Low digit value number plates are considered more desirable — number plates 'J1' and 'J2' are carried by government official vehicles.

A standard Jersey plate

J67543

A hire Jersey plate

H

J12345

Vanity plates are also auctioned, having the format 'JSY' followed by one to three digits.

Guernsey

Guernsey plates consist of up to five digits, sometimes in white on a black background, and sometimes with a circle containing the letters 'GBG', the island's international vehicle registration. Plates with lower numbers are of a high value. The plates 1 to 9 are the most valuable.

A Guernsey plate

12345

Guernsey hire cars sport a black 'H' on a yellow background on a separate plate, much like the 'L plate' required by learners. Locals consider this to stand for "Horror", as foreign drivers often lack understanding of road features such as 'filter in turn' sections common to Guernsey roads.

Alderney

In Alderney, a dependency of Guernsey, separate registrations are issued always with the prefix 'AY' followed by a space and then digits.

An Alderney plate

AY 123

Sark

Sark bans cars on its roads, so no number plates exist.

Isle of Man

When vehicle registration began in the Isle of Man in 1906, registration plates started with the letters 'MN' followed by up to four digits. In 1935, the prefix 'MAN' came into use, followed by up to three digits, and the following year a further scheme was introduced allowing three letters (BMN through YMN) to be used in addition to up to three digits. In 1959, the scheme changed to allow the digits to precede the letters. Currently a trailing letter is added to new registrations, as illustrated below. There is no indicator of vehicle age in the Manx registration plate as each can be transferred from vehicle to vehicle.

Plates now incorporate the Manx flag, bearing the triskelion symbol. The typeface now used on Manx number plates is similar to that used in the Republic of Ireland.

A Manx plate (without the words Isle of Man at the top)

GBM

DMN-123-A

Other formats

Overseas Territories

Some of the UK's overseas territories, including Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, use similar number plates to the UK, with the same colours and typeface.

Until 2002 Gibraltar number plates consisted of the letter 'G' and five digits, but this changed to 'G' followed by four digits and a letter. The European flag is also now featured, along with the international vehicle registration GBZ. Military vehicles have the letters 'RN'.

In the Falklands, the format is 'F' followed by four digits and a letter.

Bermuda number plates issued to general passenger cars are five black digits on a plain white background, similarly-sized to UK plates. Vanity plates, however, have recently become available that allow motorists to choose any seven-letter phrase, overlaid on a map of the island with "Bermuda" printed across the top, on a plate of identical dimensions to plates from the United States.

Anguilla has an 'A' followed by 4 digits, with a 'G' on the end for a government vehicle, a 'H' for a hire vehicle/taxi and an 'R' for a rental vehicle.

A 1234

In the British Virgin Islands Private Vehicles have 'PV' followed by four digits. Commercial vehicles have 'CM' followed by four digits.

PV 1234

Cayman Islands simply have 6 numbers on them, separated into groups of 3.

123 456

Saint Helena islands just have 3 digits on them, with government vehicles having a prefix of 'SHG.'

123

British Forces plates

British forces number plates are white on black, in either the older two numbers, two letters, two numbers format, or the more recent two letters, two numbers, two letters format, with the lettering arranged in three rows. In West Germany, private cars owned by members of HM Forces and their families also used plates with the same format, distinct from those used in the UK. This was discontinued in 1988 for security reasons, as it made them vulnerable to IRA attacks. Private cars driven by British military personnel are now issued with either standard UK number plates (if right hand drive) or German ones (if left hand drive).

Diplomatic plates

Since 1979 cars operated by foreign embassies, consular staff, and various international organisations have been given plates with a distinguishing format of three numbers, one letter, three numbers. The letter is D for diplomats or X for accredited non-diplomatic staff. The first group of three numbers identifies the country or organisation to whom the plate has been issued, the second group of three numbers is a serial number, starting at 101 for diplomats (although some embassies were erroneously issued 100), 400 for non-diplomatic staff of international organisations, and 700 for consular staff. Thus, for example, 101 D 101 identifies the first plate allocated to the Afghanistan embassy, 900 X 400 is the first plate allocated to the Commonwealth Secretariat. See List of country codes on British diplomatic car number plates.

"Personal" index plates

It is still legal to use any of the above schemes for so-called vanity plates –. Any registration with 2-3 consecutive valid letters and a number 1-999 (and possibly another letter) is allowed. As many cars registered before 1963 have been destroyed, these "dateless" plates are usually highly sought-after and valuable, since they can be used to hide the age of an older vehicle. However, some consider it a great pity that many classic cars now lose their original plates due to the owners cashing in on the high premiums paid for highly desirable registrations. The DVLA Cherished Mark Transfer scheme allows owners to display a registration index more appropriate to a speciality or collector vehicle and there are also a large number of private dealers who not only act as agents for DVLA issues, but hold their own private stock of dateless registrations and other cherished numbers. The DVLA however can only offer for sale registrations that have never previously been issued. There are still thousands of combinations available though and prices start at £250. One may not use a registration index to make one's vehicle appear younger or newer than it actually is. Whilst the DVLA can not re-issue registrations, there are plenty of interesting combinations available on the second hand market. As popularity grows, the prices reached for the most expensive plates are always increasing. "M 1" sold at auction in Goodwood on 7 June 2006 for £330,000. This is currently the world record price achieved for a personal plate. The previous record was £285,000 for "VIP 1": rumoured to have been bought by Roman Abramovich, it was originally an Irish number, formerly on a car once used by Pope John Paul II when visiting Dublin.^[1][2].

State vehicles used by the reigning monarch

Uniquely, the Rolls-Royce,Bentley and other motor cars used by the reigning monarch on official business do not carry registration plates. The official car of the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland also does not carry plates (but only for the duration of the week-long General Assembly). The monarch's private vehicles, and cars driven by other members of the royal family, all carry index plates.

Theft of number plates

To combat "cloning", where criminals have number plates made up for a vehicle of identical type and colour and use them on their own vehicle to commit crime without being traceable (yet appearing legitimate to a cursory police computer check), the UK Government recently introduced laws requiring the production of personal identification and vehicle registration documents when buying replacement plates from a retailer.

Although "show plates" are widely available on mail-order with no such checks (making the law wholly ineffective), number plate theft has become a new activity for criminals, who presumably wish to leave no record of their having purchased "show plates". Cloned vehicles are frequently used to avoid speeding, parking and congestion charging fines.

Tamper-resistant plates, which cannot be removed from a vehicle without destroying them, have been demonstrated in a bid to beat the problem. Ironically the DVLA effectively banned the formerly legal adhesive plates (popular for some sports cars such as the Mazda MX-5 and Alfa Romeo Spider) in 2001, which are tamper-proof by design.

See also

• Automatic number plate recognition
• British car number plate identifiers
• Mass surveillance
• UK topics
• Vehicle Excise Duty
• Vehicle registration plate

References

• Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Registration Marks - Current System, English Version. Archived from the original on 2005-03-19. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.

External links

• Printable PDFs of DVLA number plate specifications
• Vehicle Registration in the Isle of Man

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