Despite sales of new cars slowing almost to a halt thanks to the continued Covid 19 pandemic, sales of personalised registration numbers have remained buoyant and the latest DVLA auction is expected to be business as usual for the industry.
Nevertheless there are some registrations which will never be seen on the UK’s roads with the DVLA blacklisting hundreds of offensive number plates each year. Indeed anything relating to racist slurs, sexual acts or swear words all feature on this blacklist and each year the DVLA has to trawl through all the possible combinations and delete any which could be deemed offensive.
In 2018, the DVLA banned many registrations including BU18 SHT, VA18 NAS, BL18 JOB and TA18 BAN, while any number plates which feature ASS, BUM or SEX are also excluded automatically each year. Also banned in 2018 were the likes of PU18 BES, RO18 BER, NN18 GER and BO18 CKS.
Other combinations are also banned each year such as BO** MBS, SL** UTS and TO** SER, for obvious reasons.
In each twice-yearly release of new registration numbers there is always a chance to spell out some offensive word and the DVLA has meetings prior to these releases in order to rule out any registrations that they deem to be embarrassing, offensive or in bad taste.
On occasions, some do slip through the net such as JH11 HAD which was seen a couple of years ago before being removed from circulation.
Some registration numbers which could potentially be worth a tidy sum are also taken out of circulation by registration experts in the hope that they can realise their perceived potential at auction. Indeed the DVLA rakes in millions of pounds from personalised number plates each year with buyers searching for initials and names – many paying five figure sums or more.
