United Kingdom number plate: Prefix

Format, years and the law

Format

L999 LLL, for example A903 MBQ (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

• character 1: year prefix letter (changed annually, later twice-yearly)
• characters 2-4: one to three numbers
• final 3 characters: area code letters

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued

Documented 1984 to 2001; the format is likely older than the first year documented. No longer issued.

Vehicle class

Standard: the default series issued to private road vehicles. Issued for car, van, truck, bus, and motorcycle.

Colours

Characters #000000 Front plate #FFFFFF Rear plate #FFFF00

Typeface

prescribed font, or a style substantially similar; reg 15(2): plates outside reg 15(1) may use a style 'substantially similar to the prescribed font'; reg 15(4) still forbids italics, non-vertical fonts, multiple or broken strokes and lookalike formations. A REPLACEMENT plate fitted from 1.9.2001 must use the prescribed font (reg 15(1)(b)). · license plate fonts

About this plate

THE PREFIX SYSTEM, the format Britain replaced on 1 September 2001, and the one series in this file whose START IS NOT PRIMARY-SOURCED. The END is firm: INF104 § 03 dates the current format to 1 September 2001, so prefix issuance stopped on 31 August 2001. The START is recorded as 1984 on INSTRUMENT EVIDENCE ONLY: S.I. 2001/561's own marginal citation M2 names The Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) (Amendment) Regulations 1984 (S.I. 1984/814) as a relevant amendment to regulations 17 to 22 of the 1971 Regulations, the format-and-display provisions these Regulations revoked, and Schedule 1 revokes it in whole.

How the region is encoded

The final two of the three trailing letters were the LOCAL OFFICE code under the pre-2001 system; the first was a serial letter.

Legal basis and sources

1. Sch 3 Table A row 2, verbatim: 'A group consisting of a single letter and not more than 3 numbers followed by a group of 3 letters (for example A123 ABC).' Table B column (2) for the 89 mm metrics https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/561/schedule/3
2. reg 13(3): diagram 2c unavailable to plates fixed from 1.9.2001 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/561/regulation/13
3. reg 14(2): 89 mm characters permitted on pre-1.9.2001 vehicles, but not on a replacement plate https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/561/regulation/14
4. reg 17 marginal citation M2: 'S.I. 1971/450. The Relevant amendments are by S.I. 1972/1865, 1975/1089 and 1984/814', the instrument trail for the pre-2001 format provisions; Sch 1 revokes S.I. 1984/814 in whole https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/561
5. INF104 § 03: the current format 'was introduced on 1 September 2001', which dates the END of prefix issuance to 31 August 2001 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6694e379fc8e12ac3edafc60/inf104-vehicle-registration-numbers-and-numbe...

Before and after

Replaced by Standard 2001 to today