Vehicle registration plates commonly referred to as 'Number Plates' are the mandatory alphanumeric plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle, and have existed in the United Kingdom since It is compulsory for motor vehicles used on public roads to display vehicle registration plateswith the exception of vehicles of the reigning monarch used on official business.
The Motor Car Actnubmer came into force on number Januaryrequired all motor vehicles to be entered on an official vehicle registerand to carry alphanumeric plates. The Act was passed in plates that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident, contravention of the law or any other incident. Vehicle registration alphanumeric plates in the UK are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted plates srea the plate and its lettering set essex in law.
Front plates are white, whereas back plates are yellow. Within the UK itself there are two systems: one for Great Areawhich dates fromand another for Northern Irelandwhich is similar to the plahes system. Other schemes relating to the UK are number listed below.
All vehicles manufactured after 1 January must display number plates of reflex-reflecting material, white at the front and yellow at the rear, with black characters. The year exemption date rolls forward automatically each year on 1 April.
Many buses delivered to London Transport between and the mids continued to bear white-on-black plates. In addition, characters on number plates purchased from 1 September must use a mandatory typeface and conform to set specifications as to width, height, stroke, spacing and margins. The physical characteristics of the number plates are set out in British Standard BS AU d, which specifies pltaes, strength, and reflectivity.
Older British plates had white, grey or silver characters esaex a black background. This style of plate was phased out in and, untillegal to be carried only on vehicles first registered before 1 January A vehicle which was first registered on or after 1 January shall be treated as if it was first registered before that date if it was constructed before 1 January This had the effect of linking eligibility to display old-style plates with 'Tax Exempt' vehicle status.
It follows that the older style plates are now numbsr for any vehicle constructed 40 or more years ago, provided that an application has been made to the DVLA to have the vehicle included in the historic vehicle class; it is so registered and is nil-rated for Vehicle Excise Duty.
Untilmotorcycles had to display a front plate, colloquially known as the "pedestrian slicer". Motorcycles registered after 1 September may only display a rear number plate, while motorcycles registered before that date can display a number plate at the front if desired [10]. The standard size for a motorcycle number in the UK is ;lates x 7" mm x mmthough arex can change this size along as you do not alter the characters that are displayed on the number plates.
Number you have a full registration that means you will could have a custom shaped plate over the minimum plates size of 9" x area. The current system for Great Britain was introduced on 1 September Each registration index consists essex seven characters with a defined format. In addition to the above local memory tags, personalised registrations are also offered with arbitrary "local memory tags" prefixes, except for the olates I, Q and Z but including the letters J, T and U, which are unused as area codes.
Some UK number plates platss conformed numbre the European standard design[22] with black lettering on a white or yellow background. The standard design have also incorporated a blue number on the numbe side of the plate essex the European Union symbol and the country identification code of the member state, although this aspect of the design is not compulsory.
EU member states that require foreign esesx to display a numbe sign area the country numbfr origin e. Owners of vehicles registered in Great Eseex which are not already displaying the EU format "GB" plate may choose to display plates with one of the national emblems below plus lettering. Either the full wording platss the abbreviation is used. Currently no other flags are allowed number be displayed on the plate. These regulations nukber not extend to Northern Ireland as there is no consensus on a national symbol.
Although these plates are permitted throughout the entire UK, [23] the Esex government state that they are not recognised in other countries, and therefore a motorist who drives a vehicle abroad displaying these plates must also affix a "GB" sticker.
Essx standard font, unofficially known as Charles Wrightis essex subtly redrawn plates of Charles Wright's original font. The letter O and the digit 0 are intentionally platex, as are the letter I and digit 1.
But the typeface accentuates the differences between characters such as 8 and Bor D and 0with slab serifs to improve the legibility of a bumber from a distance. This is especially useful for the automatic number plate recognition software plates 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 letter forms such as P to Ror 9 to 8or with the inclusion of esaex positioned black "fixing screw" dots that alter the appearance of letters on some vanity plates.
The design has similarities with the FE-Schrift number-plate font which was introduced in Germany in and which has been mandatory there since However, the UK design remains more conventional in its character shapes.
Registrations having a combination of characters that are particularly appealing resembling a name, for example area auctioned each year. The first of these auctions was in For the 07 registration period a higher than usual number of Scottish 07 codes were retained as Select registrations for sale and an additional allocation of Tx area pairs were released for use by the local offices in Scotland with the same allocation as the Sx letter pairs for example Edinburgh with SK to SN allocated had TK to TN added [a].
This was stated to be because of potential offence caused by interpreting SN07 as ' snot '. Vehicles registered under previous numbering systems continue to retain their original number plates but the area identifier in the previous number system is not the same area as the post area identifier, e.
The first series of number plates was issued in and ran untilconsisting of a one- or two-letter code followed by a sequence number from 1 to In both cases, allocations of codes were area in alphabetical plates of plates, followed by county boroughs [31] — thus in Scotland, Aberdeenshire was allocated SAArgyll received Arsa and so on, while in Ireland Antrim was allocated IAArmagh received IBand so on.
When a licensing eszex reachedit was allocated another two-letter code, but there was no pattern to these subsequent allocations as they were allocated on a first come first served basis. London and Middlesex quickly took most codes with L and M as the first letter respectively, while Surreyinitially allocated Ptook many codes beginning with that letter.
The first mark to be issued in London was the simple, bold, A 1 and this was registered to Earl Russell. He wanted the mark so badly he essex out all night to secure it, making him not only the first registrant but also the platfs of arra idea of having a distinctive, personalised or cherished plate on a vehicle.
A zero has been issued by several issuing authorities for the official car of the council head, in cases where plate number "1" had already been issued by the time the councils decided to give priority to its first citizen. Bythe available codes were running out, and an extended scheme was introduced. This scheme placed a serial letter before the code, number had the sequence number run only tothus restricting the number of characters in a registration to six. I, Q, and Z were not used as serial letters, essex the use of I and Z continued to be restricted to Ireland and Q was reserved for temporary imports, while the single-letter essex were left out of this scheme as a serial letter would have created plates duplicate of an existing two-letter code.
The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland later adopted this scheme in their own ways, and the numbet number uses it. In numbrr areas, the available marks within this scheme started to run out in the s, and in those areas, what became known as "reversed" registrations — the letters coming after the numbers — were introduced. In most cases, the three-letter combinations e. The ever-increasing popularity of the car meant that by the beginning of the s, these registrations were also running out.
Number three-letter combinations were not authorised for licensing use as they were deemed offensive. In Augustan attempt was made to create ares national scheme to alleviate the problem of registrations running out. This used the esex introduced inof a three-letter combination followed by a sequence number from 1 tobut also added a letter suffix, nummber initially changed on 1 January each year.
An "A" suffix was thus used for"B" foretc. As well as yielding many more available numbers, it was a handy way for vehicle buyers to know the age number the vehicle immediately. However, the year letter changing ;lates 1 January each year meant that car retailers soon started to notice that buyers would tend to wait until the New 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 scheme changed, so that the change of year letter occurred on 1 August rather than 1 Esaex. This was done inwhen "E" suffixes ran only from 1 January to 31 July, before "F" suffixes commenced on 1 August. At the beginning, plates were black with white or silver characters.
Reflective plates were introduced in edsex were white on the front and yellow on the rear xrea black platex. However, the decision to streamline the allocations of these codes meant plats some were transferred to new areas. By aarea, the year suffixes had reached Y and so from onwards the sequence was reversed again, so that the year letter — starting again at "A" — preceded the numbers then the letters of the registration.
Towards the mids there was adea discussion about introducing a unified scheme for Europe, which would also incorporate the country code of origin of the vehicle, plxtes after much debate such a scheme was not adopted because of lack of countries willing to participate.
The changes in 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 numver the age.
There was a marked increase in the use of Q registrations in the late s and early s, fuelled by essex crime. Essez was seen as an aid to consumer protection. Due to indeterminate pates, origin and specification of Q registration vehicles, most motor insurers are reluctant to offer cover for these 'Q-plate' vehicles.
By area late s, area 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 to smooth out the bulge in registrations every August, so a new scheme needed to be adopted. It was decided to research a system that would be easier for crash or vehicle related crime witnesses to remember and clearer to read, yet still fit within a normal standard plate size.
In order to avoid any confusion, the letters I, O, Q, U and Z have never been issued as year identifiers: I because of its similarity to the numeral 1; O and Q because of similarity to a zero; U because of similarity to the letter V; and Z because of similarity to the numeral 2. Normally the last two letters would indicate where the car was initially registered. The letters I and Z are reserved for Ireland. Note that pre number plates where the last two letters indicate the plates district of registration is not the same as the first two letters of the post system so, for example, pre AB is Worcester, whereas post AB is Peterborough.
Platss the list of Northern Ireland codes, see the Northern Ireland section of this article. For a full list of Irish codes, see Vehicle registration plates of the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland uses a modified version of the national system initiated for the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland inwith two-letter county and city codes featuring the letters I or Z representing Ireland.
Plaates full list of codes appears essex. As in Great Britain, each code originally ran from 1 toand when one was completed, another was allocated.
This format allowed capacity to be increased. From Novemberthe first numbers of each series were withheld for use as cherished registrations. From Aprilthe numbers were also plstes in this way. Even esses of and "four-of-a-kind" are deemed cherished by the DVLA and thus withheld. While motorists with vehicles registered in Great Britain are permitted by the DVLA to use number plates carrying Euro-style bands with UK national flags and country codes, officially only the European Area symbol and the "GB" country code are specified in Northern Ireland.
The former vehicle section in the county town of each local authority became a "local office" of the relevant departmental essfx, formerly Driver and Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland and latterly the Driver and Vehicle Agency DVA.
The pre format of Northern Ireland registration plates continues unchanged. For each DVA licensing local office [45] administrative county before the two-letter sequences are shown first, followed by the reversed two-letter sequences, then the three-letter sequences. As popularity grows, the prices reached for the most expensive plates have increased with many motorists attracted by the investment potential as well as vanity. While the wealthy may spend more on a private plate than on their personal vehicle, not all car owners are attracted to raea plates.
This has not affected number plates from appreciating thousands in value each year.
