Safe Speed Forums

Ok, simple question, small non legal size rear number plate on a bike.

Its was just a small fine.

rumour has it that it carrys points now?

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Anti Road Charging Forum

http://www.traveltax.org.uk/

IIRC 3 points. It does depend how small. I remember reading that ACPO were relaxing some of the enforcement on things like number plates and dark visors but I don't recall any official announcements.

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Prepare to be Judged

3 points for small number plate? though if you have no number plate at all its just a £30 with no points...people might as well just take them off all together

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/v796.pdf

It is an offence to alter the numberplate... Fine £1000
failure to display probobly comes under construction and use regs.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

To be pedantic, there aren't actually any regs for the dimensions of a bike plate. All that's specified as far as size goes is that it must be 2 lines ('letterbox' is definitely illegal), size and font of the characters (smaller than car spec), minimum space between them and minimum margin around them. All that of course effectively defines the size of a plate but if you have a 6-character registration like mine you can legally have a narrower one as it's only 3 characters across instead of 4.

All in the cause of ANPR, of course.

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Fatshoutybloke

So if you tow a trailer and can't find the numberplate you might make a cardboard numberplate and eacalate your potential fine from £30 to £1000

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Wrong!

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/v796.pdf

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Speed camera policy Kills

I've stayed out of this thread because I thought that someone would post something authoritative. But since they haven't...

I'm quite certain that number plate offences carry a maximum fine of £1,000 with NO POINTS and a typical fine of £30 (no points) via fixed penalty ticket.

Of course if it could be shown that you had displayed a number plate incorrectly with nefarious purpose then charges of fraud or perverting the course of justice could become possible.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Read V796 again, Gizmo, and find the place where it states dimensions for the plate rather than what's on it.

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Fatshoutybloke

If you add up letter, number, spacing and margin measurements you get a minimum size!

Which depends on the number of characters in the plate?

So if you purchased the original registration mark: "A1" you could have a really tiny plate? (And a seriously depleted bank account. )

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Yup!

Precisely the arguments I went through some years ago with the police and DVLA, not over a bike plate but over a plate on an American car.

U.S. car plates have been standardized at 12 x 6 inches since 1957, so frames and recesses are designed to take that size plate. Larger plates simply do not fit properly in many cases, especially when recessed into a bumper, doubling as the cover for a centrally mounted filler cap, etc.

The number I had was a 7-digit "Q" number, all with fairly wide characters such as 3, G, E, etc. The only way you could possibly meet the height and spacing specifications would be to use a shorter number or one with a lot more narrow characters, such as 1.

Fortunately, this is one instance where lobbying from American car clubs actually paid off, and the regulations were amended a few years ago to permit slightly smaller characters on imported vehicles with restricted plate sizes.

BSAU145d defines the mandatory size of UK number plates.

If you use plate materials from another EU country (but with UK digits) the size can be whatever size their plates are.

As mentioned there is an exemption for non-EU type approved vehicles where they can use the smaller "motorcycle" size digits and just need to meet the minimum spacing and border sizes. The current legal spec for American vehicles is basically the same as people have been doing for years.

It mandates the materials and the character sizes, not the plate size.

I have yet to see a BS that specifically refers to the Jaguar S-type/XJ and Rover 75 as individual (lawful) sizes. But I have seen plates with the BS label on such cars.

The minimum size of the plate is controlled by the mandatory character spacing and the need for an 11mm border around the characters; there is no maximum size

Are they the ones which have a plates shaped to fit a kind of "rounded trapezium" recess?



Yep, there's no legal specification for the actual plate size, only the height, width, spacing, etc. of the characters.

This is what I have on my little Bronco II, standard U.S. 12 x 6 size:

Which is unlawful anyway because of the extra lettering "GB" and "87"

I just went searching for the current rules, as I had a feeling that the ban on any other material appearing on a plate only applied for vehicles from 2001 onward (like the new mandatory font).

I'm sure there was nothing illegal about carrying other information on a plate before, so long as the required spacing around the registration was maintained. Look at how many standard U.K. plates in the 1980s/90s were made with the auto accessory shop's name across the bottom.

Anyway, The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 don't seem to make any distinction in that respect any more:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si2001/20010561.htm

Section 16:


The only thing which Schedule 2 appears to allow (other than the horrible new EU strip/country symbol) is a British Standard specification number.

So it looks like thousands of existing U.K. plates suddenly became illegal in 2001.

That's because of this, from V796 again...

The British Standard sets out the physical characteristics of the number plate. This includes visibility, strength and reflectivity. The British Standard also requires each number plate to be permanently and legibly marked with the following information:-
1. The British Standard number (currently BS AU 145d)
2. The name, trade mark or other means of identification of the manufacturer or component supplier
3. Name and postcode of the supplying outlet

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Fatshoutybloke