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British Car Number Plates In the United Kingdom, all cars and other motor-powered road vehicles have had to carry registration plates (more commonly known as number plates) since 1904. The Motor Car Act of 1903, which came into force on January 1, 1904, required all vehicles to be registered with the authorities, and to carry number plates. The act was passed in order that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident or contravention of the law. Car plates are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted dimensions of the plate and its lettering set down in law. Colour Current plates have black characters on reflective white (for the front plate) or on reflective yellow (for the rear plate). Older plates had white or silver characters in relief on a black background. This style of plate was phased out in 1972, and is now only legal to be carried on cars registered prior to that date. Current system The current system for Great Britain was introduced in 2001. There is another scheme for Northern Ireland. Each registration consists of exactly 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. "02" for 2002, or else has 50 added if it was issued in the second half of the year;
- A randomly generated 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).
With this scheme, a buyer can tell the year of a car without having to look it up, and the preceding area code letters are usually what is 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. 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 pounds changing hands, due to the desirability of a specific number. History Pre 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 area where 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 licencing authority reached 9999, it was allocated another two letter mark, but there was no pattern to these subsequent allocations. 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. (After independence, the Irish Republic continued to use this scheme until 1986.) 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 immediately know the age of the vehicle. At first the year letter changed on January 1st 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 month remained at August until 1999. 1982 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 over at "A" – preceded the numbers then the letters of the registration. The available range was then A1AAA–Y999YYY. Towards the mid-90s, 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, Britain decided not to adopt any such scheme. The changes in 1983 also bought the letter Q into use. 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 90s, 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 would need to be adopted. Rather than stick with a variation of the ad-hoc numbering that had existed since 1903, it was decided to research a system that would be easier for accident or car crime witnesses to remember, clearer to read, yet still fit within a normal standard plate size. In addition, the car sales industry were finding August was becoming overly busy, and started to push for two changes per year. This change was brought in early, using the existing scheme, which helped to run the numbers out quicker. The current system was introduced in 2001. Year letters Suffix series - A – 1963
- B – 1964
- C – 1965
- D – 1966
- E – January 1967–July 1967
- F – August 1967/68
- G – 1968/69
- H – 1969/70
- J – 1970/71
- K – 1971/72
- L – 1972/73
- M – 1973/74
- N – 1974/75
- P – 1975/76
- R – 1976/77
- S – 1977/78
- T – 1978/79
- V – 1979/80
- W – 1980/81
- X – 1981/82
- Y – 1982/83
Prefix series - A – 1983/84
- B – 1984/85
- C – 1985/86
- D – 1986/87
- E – 1987/88
- F – 1988/89
- G – 1989/90
- H – 1990/91
- J – 1991/92
- K – 1992/93
- L – 1993/94
- M – 1994/95
- N – 1995/96
- P – 1996/97
- R – 1997/98
- S – 1998–February 1999
- T – March 99–August 99
- V – September 99–Feb 2000
- W – March 2000–August 2000
- X – September 2000–February 2001
- Y – March 2001–September 2001
Northern Ireland A separate system remains in use in Northern Ireland. Current registrations plates take the form "ABC 1000", where "BC" represents the county and "A" denotes the position in the series. (The city of Belfast also has its own codes.) The numbering begins at 1000 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 2004, County Antrim is using the series "KZ", after 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. Previously, it was also possible to have a number below 1000. 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. The Republic has since introduced new codes. (See Irish Vehicle Registration Plates.) Northern Ireland licence plates are used often in Great Britain as vanity plates. County codes Crown Dependencies The Crown Dependencies of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man have similar number plates to those used in the UK. Jersey number plates consist of the letter 'J' followed by five digits, with hire cars originally having a letter 'H' in white on a red background. Guernsey plates consist of five digits, sometimes in white on a black background, and with a circle containing the letters 'GBG', the Island's international vehicle registration. In Alderney, a dependency of Guernsey, separate registrations are issued, of the format 'AY' and three digits. The Isle of Man originally had the letters 'MAN' followed by four digits, but this was changed to three letters (the second and third of which being 'MN') followed by three digits and a letter, as illustrated below. Plates now incorporate the Manx flag, bearing the triskellion symbol. The typeface now used on Manx number plates is similar to that used in the Republic of Ireland. 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. See also External links
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