Vehicle registration plate identifiers of the United Kingdom
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British car number plate identifiers are letters used to pinpoint where a car has been registered in Great Britain. They have been used on British vehicle number plates since 2001. A separate (and older) system is used in Northern Ireland.
In the usual number plate format AB 51 CDE, the first two letters are broken down into a regional letter (given a somewhat loose mnemonic) followed by a more specific letter, with particular letter ranges pinpointing a particular DVLA office. For example, a registration beginning with GK will have been registered with the Maidstone office in Kent.
| Local Memory Tag (Region) | DVLA Office | Local Identifier (I, Q and Z excluded) |
|---|---|---|
| A ((East) Anglia) | Peterborough | A - N |
| Norwich | O - U | |
| Ipswich | V - Y | |
| B (Birmingham) | Birmingham | A - Y |
| C (Cymru/Wales) | Cardiff | A - O |
| Swansea | P - V | |
| Bangor | W X Y | |
| D (Deeside etc.) | Chester | A - K |
| Shrewsbury | L - Y | |
| E (Essex and Hertfordshire) | Chelmsford | A - Y |
| F (Forest and Fens) | Nottingham | A - P |
| Lincoln | R - Y | |
| G (Garden of England) | Maidstone | A - O |
| Brighton | P - Y | |
| H (Hampshire and Dorset) | Bournemouth | A - J |
| Portsmouth | K - Y | |
| HW Reserved for Isle of Wight | ||
| K (Kettering and Luton) | Luton | A - L |
| Northampton | M - Y | |
| L (London) | Wimbledon | A - J |
| Stanmore | K - T | |
| Sidcup | U - Y | |
| M (Manchester and Merseyside) | Manchester | A - Y |
| N (North) | Newcastle upon Tyne | A - O |
| Stockton-on-Tees | P - Y | |
| O (Oxford) | Oxford | A - Y |
| P (Preston and Pennines) | Preston | A - T |
| Carlisle | U - Y | |
| R (Reading) | Reading | A - Y |
| S (Scotland) | Glasgow | A - J |
| Edinburgh | K - O | |
| Dundee | P - T | |
| Aberdeen | U V W | |
| Inverness | X Y | |
| T (Scotland) | Glasgow | F (TF07 only) |
| Edinburgh | K N (TN07 numbers issued instead of SN07[1], TK07 numbers also issued due to exhaustion of SK-SO series[citation needed]) | |
| V (Vale of Severn) | Worcester | A - Y |
| W (West Country) | Exeter | A - J |
| Truro | K L | |
| Bristol | M - Y | |
| Y (Yorkshire) | Leeds | A - K |
| Sheffield | L - U | |
| Beverley | V - Y |
[edit] References
- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Full list of local memory tags from September 2001. Archived from the original on 2005-02-12. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. INF104: Vehicle Number Plates. Retrieved on 2007-12-24.
[edit] Notes
- ^ 'Offensive' SN07 car plate banned (will affect only what were to become SN07 plates; will revert back to SN57 thereafter), BBC News Online, 13 July 2007
[edit] Further reading
- Where's that vehicle come from?, site with details of identifiers for vehicles before 2001.
