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Sussex Police is giving away one-way screws to help motorists prevent number plate thefts
There were 438 recorded thefts of number plates across Sussex in 2006, with a further 94 so far this year. Criminals are thought to be using stolen number plates to avoid detection for motoring and other offences from the increasing use of camera technology.

15,000 'clutch head' screws, funded by Sussex Police, are being made available from police stations across Sussex on a 'first come, first served' basis. Motorists can also purchase such screws at garages and car spares stockists.

The special screws can be fitted using a standard screwdriver, but are much more difficult to remove than ordinary screws without breaking the plates.

14. Restricting access to number plates had reduced vehicle crime. Number plate security could nevertheless be tightened further, and measures under consideration included embedding computer chips in number plates so that authorities could verify that the plates were genuine, and making number plates physically more difficult to remove. The theft of number plates was relatively uncommon. Each month, however, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency issued between 10 and 20 new replacement registration numbers where there was evidence that the details of a vehicle had been stolen to clone other vehicles. Under the Vehicles (Crime) Act 2001, which came into force in September 2003, all number plate suppliers in England and Wales must register with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and verify vehicle ownership records before issuing a number plate. The requirement to register had not yet been extended to Scotland and Northern Ireland, although action to do so was in hand.

Until the embedded chip number plate is the only one you can fit:

If they changed to RFID readers as the principal means of imposing, say, the congestion charge, then you could have one RFID identity and one visible (and different) identity. Very confusing.