the history of registration numbers

With a need to give vehicles and identifying mark or number, to enable easy identification, the government created the first vehicle registration scheme. Initially, each registration mark was made up of one letter and one number, as this was deemed sufficient to distinguish between them. The first number plate, "A 1" was issued in 1903 by London County Council.

Unsurprisingly, this format was short-lived, so new, longer formats had to be adopted. These new arrangements consisted of two letters and four numbers, the letters being incremented when numbers were exhausted.

The problem was that with some areas being more populated, and therefore having a higher share of vehicles, than others, the registrations were taken at different rates. Giving some insight into this, the DVLA website declares "The Liverpool series 'KA' lasted only two years between 1925 and 1927 whilst the series 'SJ' was still being issued by Bute Council in 1963."

A new format consisting of three letters followed by three number series was introduced in mid-1930s, but by the mid-1950s all registrations using this layout had been allocated, so the format was reversed. In 1965, the number plate format changed again, with a suffix letter being appended - a change from 6 digits to 7 allowed an increased number of plates to be issued before the registration format was exhausted.

Reflective number plates were introduced from January 1973, styled with black writing on white plates on the front and black writing on yellow plates at the rear of the vehicle. In 1974 the process of vehicle registration and licensing was centralised - the DVLC was commissioned, now the DVLA in Swansea.

1983 saw the end of the "suffix" letter, and the implementation of the Prefix. This prefix letter is followed by the 3 numbers, 3 letters configuration. Q plates were also introduced, as issued to kit cars and vehicles where the date of first registration can't be determined.

In 1999 the standard "1-plate-per-year" system was increased to two plate changes a year, 1 March and 1 September were introduced.

In 2001, the new registration format was introduced; number plates would have a format composed of 2 prefix letters, 2 numbers, then 3 letters. The 2 prefix letters are determined by the location of registration, the numbers relate to the year of registration, and the remaining 3 letters are random registration marks.