About number plates
Car number plates in the UK serve to give not only an unique identifier, but also give some useful information about the vehicle (except for personalised number plates, which give out their own type of information!). From a standard number plate on a post-2001 manufactured vehicle, you can easily work out it's age, and whereabouts in the UK it was registered.
Before 1999, new registrations had a different plate every year. These registrations were simply a letter from A to Z, ignoring I, O, Q, U, and Z for readability reasons. Since 1999 new registration plates have changed twice a year, in March and September. The current standard number plate format that we use in the UK was introduced in September 2001, and consists of the following identifiers:
1) An area code, also known as a local memory tag. These first two characters must be letters, and indicate the location that the vehicle was registered. The first letter indicates the region it was registered, for example A is Anglia, whilst the second indicates the DVLA office. Some examples: BD would be Birmingham, SK would be the Edinburgh office in Scotland, and PE would be Preston. The letters I, Q and Z are not used here.
2) The age identifier. The third and fourth characters must be numeric, and can give the vehicles age within about 6 months. This identifier changes twice a year, on the first of March and first of September. View the table below to see how each pair of numbers equates to a year of registration.
3) Three random letters. The last three characters must be numbers, and this is to uniquely distinguish the vehicle from others featuring the same first four characters. The letters I and Q are not used here.
Age identifiers
Are your plates legal?
The vast majority of all number plates are perfectly legal, but we've all seen at least one that looks like it has been drawn with a market pen. There are a number of guidelines as to the appearance of a number plate, and these came into force back in 2001.
Firstly, all plates must utilise the official font, known as 'Charles Wright 2001'. The standard size of this font is 79mm in height, but there is no actual legal size specified. Industry standard for number plate size is 520mm x 111mm, but many are bigger. The plates on vehicles registered before the changes in 2001 do not have to be replaced unless the font they use differs greatly.
Number plates that have been customised with a stylised font, or non-standard characters, or with screws surreptitiously placed to make existing letters look like other letters are all illegal. Driving around with such plates, and not replacing them can result in prosecution against the owner of the car.
National emblems
Since April 2009 number plates have been allowed to display the national flag of the area in which they were registered, to the left of the existing registration mark. So, Welsh drivers can display the Red Dragon, Scots can display the Saltire, English drivers the Cross of St George, and all may display the Union Flag. There are no other flags that may be displayed, and other symbols are similarly disallowed.
If a car owner wishes, they may also have the European Flag displayed to the left of their registration mark with the letters 'GB' if they do not wish a national flag. By doing so you can travel in the European Union without having to brand your car with a 'GB' sticker. However, if you simply display a national flag, you must still have the 'GB' sticker adorned on your vehicle when travelling in the European Union.