UK drivers are being urged to make sure their licence plates are road legal ahead of the new "23" number vehicle registration coming next month.
The rollout on March 1 will impact drivers in Scotland, England and Wales as the first licence plate change of 2023. The "72" number plate was previously issued back in September - representing all new cars registered in the last half of 2022 - while "22" was rolled out the previous March.
Licence plates must adhere to certain specifications to be road legal and many changes have been made to them through the years that drivers may not be aware of. Motorists are also being warned not to change or purposefully obscure their registration plate, as this could lead to a £1,000 fine.
The DVLA warns: "Number plates (also known as licence plates) must show your registration number correctly. You cannot rearrange letters or numbers, or alter them so that they’re hard to read.
"You could be fined up to £1,000 and your vehicle will fail its MOT test if you drive with incorrectly displayed number plates."
Here's what you should know about all licence plate changes made since the 70s, as reported by the Express.
Licence plate background colour
For vehicles made after January 1, 1973, the front number plate must have a white background while the rear number plate at the rear must have a yellow background.
Numbers and letters must be exactly 79 millimetres tall and there must be a space between the numbers that mark the year and the three random letters.
Licence plate font
All registration plates must be in a specific “Charles Wright” font which has been in use since 2001. Characters must be 79mm and 50mm wide (except the number 1 or letter I) and the thickness of the character stroke must be 14mm.
The space between characters must be 11mm and the space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 33mm.
Licence plate material
More recent number plates also need to be “BS AU 145e” standard plates which meet the new British Standard for Retroreflective Number Plates.
The plates are made from a tougher material which makes them more resistant to abrasion and other damage. This change was made to make it easier for Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to read the plate.
The new number plates will also have to include the supplier’s business name and postcode, along with the name of the number plate manufacturer and the new standard.
Number plates can now only display solid black lettering as two tone plates that used different shades to create a 3D or 4D effect have been banned. The lettering can still be Perspex or acrylic lettering, provided it meets all other requirements.
At the end of 2020, new green number plates were introduced to denote which vehicles were electric. The green stripe on the left-hand side of the plate indicates the car’s zero tailpipe emissions credentials.
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