Vehicle Registration Plates Act 2026
What your new number plate will look like, what it costs, and how the Vehicle Registration Plates Act 2026 became its own law.
The design
Front and rear plate faces are both white, in the format set out below. The plate is a wide, short shape — 520mm by 110mm — shown here at its native proportions.
What each part represents
Drawn from Sections 2 to 6 of the published specimen (Title 37 of 2026).
Why this is its own Act
“Title 19's indexed subject does not itself establish a complete national plate-design, manufacture, accessibility, replacement or identity-privacy regime.”From the constitutional ruling on this Act's relationship to Title 19
An early version of this proposal was rejected as a duplicate of Title 19, the Road Safety and Traffic Management Act 2025, and redirected toward an amendment of that Act instead. The ruling above is why it came back as a standalone Act: Title 19 touches vehicles and roads, but it does not itself set out a plate design, a manufacture and procurement regime, accessibility duties, a replacement process, or an identity-privacy regime for keeper information — all of which this Act creates in full.
Timeline
- Introduced
- Rejected as duplicateRedirected toward a Title 19 amendment
- Reintroduced as a standalone Act
- Debated; five amendments agreed
- PassedMajority of all 100 seats
- Specimen published1 December 2026MOT/VRP/2026/01
- In force1 February 2027
Downloads
If you need your registration details in an accessible format, or you want to challenge a refusal or an incorrect record, the Ministry of Transport handles both under this Act. Contact the Ministry to make a request or start an appeal.