A brief history of the u.k. car number plate system



"The Motor Car Act 1903" started everything off .It said that every car had to be registered with a county council or county borough council, and every car had to display a unique identifying number issued to them by such a council .

Initially each council was issued one letter to use on the number plates , they could not have known how popular the motor car was to become and as the number of cars increased they quickly ran out of combinations ,so they started to use two and then three letter combinations.

By 1963 several councils were close to the end of their allocation, so a 7th digit was added to the Number Plate System. This extra digit was a letter ,so post 1963 numbers had three letters then a space then up to 3 numbers and then another letter this last letter gave the age of the car.

The Suffix Number Plate System

Table of "Age identifier " Suffix Letters.

A 1 Jan 63 - 31 Dec 63H 1 Aug 69 - 31 Jul 70R 1 Aug 76 - 31 Jul 77

B 1 Jan 64 - 31 Dec 64J 1 Aug 70 - 31 Jul 71S 1 Aug 77 - 31 Jul 78

C 1 Jan 65 - 31 Dec 65K 1 Aug 71 - 31 Jul 72T 1 Aug 78 - 31 Jul 79

D 1 Jan 66 - 31 Dec 66L 1 Aug 72 - 31 Jul 73V 1 Aug 79 - 31 Jul 80

E 1 Jan 67 - 31 Jul 67M 1 Aug 73 - 31 Jul 74W 1 Aug 80 - 31 Jul 81

F 1 Aug 67 - 31 Jul 68N 1 Aug 74 - 31 Jul 75X 1 Aug 81 - 31 Jul 82

G 1 Aug 68 - 31 Jul 69P 1 Aug 75 - 31 Jul 76Y 1 Aug 82 - 31 Jul 83

You may notice that a further complication to the number system came in 1967 when , under pressure from the motor car industry the changeover date was moved to August in an attempt to smooth out new car puchasing by the public.

It may also be noted that the letters I and Z ( used for N.Ireland) are missing as are Q ( reserved for kit cars and repaired write offs etc) and the letter U ( reason unknown).

The letters I Q Z O and U were never used as a suffix letter in fact I Q and Z were never used at all.

By 1983 they faced the same problem but deftly extended the system by reversing the number plate giving a letter first then up to 3 numbers then a space then 3 more letters. The first letter now gave the age of the car.

Prefix number plate system

The Prefix Number Plate System

Table of "Age identifier " Prefix Letters.

A 1 Aug 83 - 31 Jul 84H 1 Aug 90 - 31 Jul 91R 1 Aug 97 - 31 Jul 98

B 1 Aug 84 - 31 Jul 85J 1 Aug 91 - 31 Jul 92S 1 Aug 98 - 28 Feb 99

C 1 Aug 85 - 31 Jul 86K 1 Aug 92 - 31 Jul 93T 1 Mar 99 - 31 Aug 99

D 1 Aug 86 - 31 Jul 87L 1 Aug 93 - 31 Jul 94V 1 Sep 99 - 29 Feb 00

E 1 Aug 87 - 31 Jul 88M 1 Aug 94 - 31 Jul 95W 1 Mar 00 - 31 Aug 00

F 1 Aug 88 - 31 Jul 89N 1 Aug 95 - 31 Jul 96X 1 Sep 00 - 28 Feb 01

G 1 Aug 89 - 31 Jul 90P 1 Aug 96 - 31 Jul 97Y 1 Mar 01 - 31 Aug 01

It may be noted that the letters I and Z ( used for N.Ireland) are missing as are Q ( reserved for kit cars and repaired write offs etc) and the letter U ( reason unknown).

By 2001 the problem was looming again and the current system was introduced. Now each number plate has 7 digits and the first two letters give the region of the country where the car was first registered, followed by two numbers which give the age of the car and then three random letters . An example of this could be NE51 XXX. The NE tells you the car is from the North East of England (a table of these region identifiers is below ). The 51 tells you it was registered in September 2001 and the last three letters mean nothing.

Current U.K. Number Plates System .

The first two digits of each car registration denote the area of the country where the vehicle was first registered.

First LetterIssuing officeSecond Letter Possibilities

APeterboroughA B C D E F G H J K L M N

NorwichO P R S T U

IpswichV W X Y

BBirminghamA - Y

CCardiffA B C D E F G H J K L M N O

SwanseaP R S T U V

BangorW X Y

DChesterA B C D E F G H J K

ShrewsburyL M N O P R S T U V W X Y

EChelmsfordA - Y

FNottinghamA B C D E F G H J K L M N P

LincolnR S T V W X Y

GMaidstoneA B C D E F G H J K L M N O

BrightonP R S T U V W X Y

HBournemouthA B C D E F G H J

PortsmouthK L M N O P R S T U V W X Y

HW Reserved for the Isle of Wight

KLutonA B C D E F G H J K L

NorthamptonM N O P R S T U V W X Y

LWimbledonA B C D E F G H J

StanmoreK L M N O P R S T

SidcupU V W X Y

MManchesterA - Y

NNewcastleA B C D E G H J K L M N O

StocktonP R S T U V W X Y

OOxfordA - Y

PPrestonA B C D E F G H J K L M N O P R S T

CarlisleU V W X Y

RReadingA - Y

SGlasgowA B C D E F G H J

EdinburghK L M N O

DundeeP R S T

AberdeenU V W

InvernessX Y

VWorcesterA - Y

W ExeterA B C D E F G H J

TruroK L

BristolM N O P R S T U V W X Y

YLeedsA B C D E F G H J K

SheffieldL M N O P R S T U

BeverleyV W X Y