Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to (a) the police, (b) local authorities and (c) other authorities on removing covers from illicitly-covered licence plates in public spaces to help enforce existing legislation and regulations; and whether she has received representations on the risk of criminal damage complaints if authorities remove coverings.

Disguising a vehicle’s identity is an offence and should be reported to the police to be investigated and, where appropriate, taken through the courts.

The Home Office has not issued any specific guidance on the removal of covers from licence plates.