Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate the Government has made of the financial losses suffered by businesses as a result of vehicles using obscured or false number plates to commit fuel theft or evade charges.

No assessment of potential financial losses as a result of vehicles using obscured or false number plates has been made.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime.

The DVLA is part of the British Standard Institute (BSI) committee that has recently reviewed the current standard for number plates. The proposed amendments are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025. Officials are also considering options to ensure a more robust, auditable process which would enable tighter checks on number plate suppliers.

Standards on the use of automated number plate reader technology is a matter for the Home Office which issues guidance on its use as part of the National ANPR Standards for Policing and Law Enforcement (NASPLE).