For our members outside the UK, please find a description of the current UK vehicle registration system:
In the UK, when new vehicles are purchased they have to be registered with the UK Government, issued with a registration number, the appropriate annual vehicle tax paid, and insured. Registration number have to be displayed both on the front and rear on ‘registration plates’.
Registration plates have to conform to a British Standard, which specifies what the plate can contain, the font and size of font used, etc. This is partly to ensure that the registration number can be read from a distance of 75 metres.
Vehicle registrations are commonly referred to as:
'registration numbers', 'registration plates', 'plates', etc.
As regards registering a vehicle, two systems are in operation:
1. One for England, Scotland and Wales, and,
2. One for Northern Ireland.
ENGLAND, SCOTLAND & WALES
The current registration system was introduced from 1st September 2001. Registration plates should be reflective white with black font at the vehicle front, and reflective yellow with black font at the rear. Registration numbers/plates look like this:
The COUNTRY IDENTIFIER is optional and can be either:
The EU symbol or national flag, and one of the national identifiers (eg. UK, GB (Great
Britain), SCO (Scotland), WALES, etc).
The AREA CODE identifies which area the car was first registered in. The first letter identifies the broad area –
A – Anglia: B – Birmingham: C – Cymru (Wales): D- Deeside: E – Essex: F – Forest and Fens; G – Garden of England: H – Hampshire and Dorset:
K – Milton Keynes: L - London: M – Manchester and Merseyside: N - North: O - Oxford: P - Preston: R – Reading: S – Scotland: T – used temporarily for Scotland:
V – Severn Valley: W – West of England: Y – Yorkshire.
The second letter sub-divides the broad area.
The AGE IDENTIFIER denotes when the car was first registered. The age identifier changes on the 1st March and the 1st September each year – for example:
01/09/2001 to 28/02/2002 – 51
01/03/2002 to 31/08/2002 – 02
01/09/2002 to 28/02/2003 – 52
01/03/2003 to 31/08/2003 – 03
This system is designed to run through until 2050.
The year identifiers for 2015 are:
a. To 28/02/2015 – 64
b. 01/03/2015 to 31/08/2015 – 15
c. From 01/09/2015 – 65
The three remaining letters are RANDOM.
NORTHERN IRELAND
A Northern Ireland registration number looks like this:
Again one has the optional COUNTRY IDENTIFIER.
The current system has the first letter and the numbers running in series. For example the series will run to A**9998, then to B**9998,then to C**9998, and so on.
The second and third letters are the COUNTY or CITY CODE – for example:
AZ – Belfast: BZ – Down: HZ – Tyrone: etc.
