New 2018 ’68’ number plates were introduced on September 1st.
Every time new plates are introduced there is a list of numerical and letter combinations that are immediately banned.
DVLA guidelines dictate that any plates that ‘may cause offence’ will be removed before they end circulation.
One of the plates to be banned in the latest crop of plates was ‘EU68 BAD’ as it could potentially be seen as pro-Brexit.
A Freedom of Information request from the Press Association revealed that a total of 436 plates were banned.
Amongst these were A68 USE, BA68 TAD and OR68 ASM.
In addition to this, UK68 KKK, which is a reference to the racist group Ku Klux Klan was also omitted.
The Licensing Agency does, however, not always spot every potentially offensive plate from entering circulation.
Back in 2011, a number plates spelling JH11 HAD, an Islamic, term was spotted on the roads.
The DVLA said at the time: “We try to identify all combinations that may cause offence, and on the rare occasion where potentially offensive numbers slip through the net, steps are taken to withdraw the number.”
Certain combinations of letters or number are instantly banned including ‘SEX’ and ASS.’
A number of four and five letter combinations will also be banned including things like B** UMS, FA** RTY and CR** APS.
Personalised number plates are popular in the UK and certain plates can be incredibly valuable.
One example of this is the ‘F1’ plate, a shortening for popular motorsport Formula 1, which recently went on sale over £14 million.
The registration plate is currently owned by the founder of Kahn Design Afzal Kahn, who previously used the plate on his Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
He originally bought the plate back in 2008 for a reported £375,000.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: “Many people enjoy displaying a personalised registration number and there are over 50 million registrations available on our website.
“The vast majority of registration numbers are made available but the agency holds back any combinations that may cause offence, embarrassment or are in poor taste.”
Each number and character on a number plate holds a different purpose and function.
The first letter refers to the region of the country the car was registered in and the second refers to the local DVLA office.
Following that is the age identifier which signals the year it was introduced in.
Lastly, the final three characters are completely random.
