Number plates - summary

From 1 January 2003 suppliers of number plates in England and Wales will be required by law to register their details with the governing agency concerned. From that date a business will be unable to trade as a supplier unless it is registered.

Suppliers of number plates

A Number Plates supplier is someone whose business consists wholly or partly of supplying number plates i.e. finished plates that incorporate the registration mark of a vehicle registered with the recognised government agency. Manufacturers, distributors, assemblers, motor factors, motor dealers and retail outlets including on-line retailers could fall within the scope of the scheme provided that they supply the finished product, ie; number plates. Motor dealers who refit their used vehicles for sale with replacement plates would be classed as number plate suppliers.
If a business supplies only blank plates or other components or materials it will not be required to register. People who manufacture plates solely for their own use, rather than supply to third parties, are not within the scope of the legislation e.g. a fleet operator who assembles plates and fits them only to vehicles in his fleet. As he does not supply the plates, he is not a supplier for the purposes of the legislation.

The Register of Number Plate Suppliers comes into force on 1 January 2003, but to allow businesses that are not registered to do so and to adjust their procedures, certain offences will not come into force until 1 March 2003. These offences are:-

i) Trading while unregistered
ii) Supplying an unregistered business
iii) Failure to keep records
iv) Failure to make the appropriate checks

The Police or Local Authorities will not have right of access to a business until 1 March 2003.

NB. It should be noted that the offence of selling 'counterfeit plates' (plates that do not conform to the specifications in the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 comes into force on 1 January 2003.

Exemptions to the number plates register

Suppliers of number plates who only supply for newly registered vehicles for the first time in the UK.

Suppliers of number plates who are located entirely outside England and Wales.

Manufacturers of a number plates components who do not sell complete plates.

Businesses that assemble or purchase plates for their own use or fit them to their own vehicles but do not supply them to anyone else. (Please note that a motor trader who fits new plates to used vehicles to sell on is not exempted because the plates are supplied along with the vehicle).

Suppliers of number plates since 1988