What is the text at the bottom of a number plate?

The text at the bottom of a number plate says who made the plate and which standard it was made to. It comes in two parts. In the centre is the name or trademark of the number plate supplier, followed by the postcode of the outlet that supplied it. On the right is the maker of the components used to build the plate, and the British Standard number, which on a plate fitted today is BS AU 145e. The regulations require all of it, which is why no road-legal plate is without it. Our guide to number plate law covers the rest of the rules.

The central text: the supplier and their postcode

The regulations require every plate to display "the name and postcode of the supplying outlet of the assembled registration plate displaying the registration mark". On our plates that reads the supplier name and the postcode of the outlet. The postcode is the one recorded against us on the register of number plate suppliers, and GOV.UK is clear that "You can only get a number plate made up from a registered number plate supplier", so the marking ties the plate to a supplier who can be looked up. Ours reads "UTOPIA PLATES DH1 2XJ".

The right-aligned text: the standard and the component maker

The right-hand marking carries two things: "the name of the supplier or manufacturer of the parts used to assemble the registration plate", and the British Standard number. On our plates it reads "NNP BS AU 145e". The rules for number plates on GOV.UK put the second part plainly: a plate must "be marked with a British Standard number - this is 'BS AU 145e' for plates fitted after 1 September 2021". Plates fitted before that date carry BS AU 145d. The standard is about the plate itself, its reflectivity, construction and durability, rather than the registration printed on it.

Why a legal plate has to carry it

Schedule 2 of the number plate regulations starts from the opposite position: "other than the registration mark, no additional markings may be displayed on a registration plate". The supplier details and the standard number are the exception written into the rules, and they are required rather than optional. Together they mean anyone looking at a legal plate can tell which standard it was made to, who made the components, and which registered outlet supplied it.

How big the text is allowed to be

The rules fix the size and the position. The markings must be "permanently marked", "non-retroreflecting", "of a single shade of non-retroreflecting colour" and "no more than 10 millimetres in height and no less than 3 millimetres in height", and "the space between the bottom of the registration mark and any other markings must not be less than 7 millimetres". Within that range a supplier can choose. We set our text at the 3 millimetre legal minimum, because a smaller marking is a less intrusive one.

Can I have a plate with nothing at the bottom?

Not for the road. A plate with no supplier details and no standard number is not road legal, whatever else is right about it. Blank plates are sold as show plates, which are for display off the road, and we do not make them. GOV.UK sets out what is at stake: "You could be fined up to £1,000 and your vehicle will fail its MOT test if you drive with incorrectly displayed number plates."

What is on the plates we make

Every plate we make carries our name and postcode and the BS AU 145e mark, whatever style of characters goes on top, so the bottom text is the same on a standard UK number plate as on any other style. It is the same on the less common sizes too, including import shape plates, where the regulations set a minimum gap between the bottom of the registration and the top of the supplier text.