The number plates on your vehicle must:

• be made from a reflective material
• display black characters on a white background (front plate)
• display black characters on a yellow background (rear plate)
• not have a background pattern
• be marked to show who supplied the number plate
• be marked with a British Standard number - this is ‘BS AU 145e’ for plates fitted after 1 September 2021

The characters must not be removable or reflective. If your number plates were fitted after 1 September 2021, they must also be a single shade of black.

Your number plates can also:

• have 3D (raised) characters
• display certain flags, symbols and identifiers
• display a green flash, if you have a zero-emission vehicle 

LETTER SPACING, SIZE AND STYLE

The characters on a number plate need to be a certain height and size.

Read leaflet INF104: vehicle registration numbers and number plates - height and size measurement, for more information.

If you have a trailer, read leaflet INF291: trailer registration numbers and number plates.

If you cannot fix the trailer registration plate on the back of your trailer, fix it to both sides instead. Make sure they’re clearly visible.

In short, they are completely legal. From September 2021 rules changed which meant any new plates printed from September 2021 could not use the old British Standards code (BSAU 145d) which was replaced by the new British Standards code (BSAU 145e).

What does this mean for you?

There was a lot of controversy caused by the spread of misinformation on various social media platforms where it was claimed 3D Gel and 4D Plates were to be banned, however this is not the case. The main confusion was caused by a statement which said 3D printed plates were to be stopped from September 2021. The ambiguity of this statement meant that many translated this in a way where 3D Gel and 4D plates would fall under this category.

The ruling is actually that the face and sides of the character has to be one shade of black, therefore the use of shading to cause a 3D effect is no longer permitted (see example below).   

3D Gel, 4D and 4D Gel all meet the criteria of using one shade of black and therefore are permitted to be used.

The uncertainty created led to a petition to stop the supposed ban of 3D Gel and 4D plates which received a government response from the Department for Transport. See below an extract of the official response and a link to the official response.

'The new British Standard for retroreflective number plates does not state that number plates with raised characters, including 3D gel and 4D number plates, will not be permitted.

It is a requirement under the current British Standard that the entire surface of the characters of the registration number must be black. This also includes all sides of the characters; the use of different coloured or clear sides is not permitted. Under the new British Standard, new number plates fitted from 1 September 2021 will also no longer be legal to utilise different shades of black to create 3D effects. The new standard also specifies that the characters of the registration number must not be removable.'

Please click here for the official response to the petition. 

Unfortunately tinted/smoked plates are not legal. They are only to be used as show plates and you can run the risk of receiving a fine if you do use them on public roads.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the product we cannot offer returns. 

Every number plate is a bespoke order and is produced upon customer specification. However should you receive a faulty product we will offer you a full refund or replacement of the product at no cost to you. 

Yes. 

You will never need to use our warranty however to provide assurance to our customers we do guarantee against any letters falling off a plate for 1 year. A successful claim will result in a full replacement of the number plate at no cost to the customer. 

Any lettering that is tampered with or drilled through will not be covered by this claim. Our number plates are jet wash friendly and this will not affect the validity of your claim.

A road legal plate is a number plate that meets all the requirements needed for it to be of legal use on the road. There are many factors that determine the legality of a number plate such as the size of the plate used or the style of the characters etc. For more information on the rules with regards to number plates please click here. Every road legal plate requires the plate makers name and postcode along with the latest British Standards number.

It's in the name! A show plate is a plate for show and not for use on the road. The use of a show plate on the road cause you to receive a fine and, for private registration, can lead to the revocation of your registration!