The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) (Amendment) Regulations 2002

Statutory Instruments

2002 No. 2687

ROAD TRAFFIC

The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) (Amendment) Regulations 2002

Made

24th October 2002

Laid before Parliament

1st November 2002

Coming into force

22nd November 2002

The Secretary of State for Transport, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 23(3) and (4) and 57 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994(1) hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) (Amendment) Regulations 2002 and shall come into force on 22nd November 2002.

Amendment of Regulations

2.  The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001(2) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of these Regulations.

Further requirements for registration plates

3.  In regulation 11, after paragraph (1), insert the following paragraph—

“(1A) The surface of a registration plate must not comprise or incorporate any design, pattern or texture, or be treated in any way which gives to any part of the plate the appearance of a design, pattern or texture.”.

Interpretation of provisions relating to registration marks

4.  In regulation 12 (interpretation of Part III), in paragraph (1), in sub-paragraph (d), after “character height” ”, insert “, except in relation to a vehicle to which regulation 14A applies,”.

Size and spacing of characters

5.—(1) In regulation 14 (size and spacing of characters)—

(a) in paragraph (1), after “and (3)”, insert “and regulation 14A”;

(b) in paragraphs (4) and (5), for “The”, substitute “Subject to regulation 14A, the”;

(c) in paragaph (6), after “paragraph (11)”, insert “or regulation 14A”;

(d) in paragraphs (7) to (9), for “The”, substitute “Subject to regulation 14A, the”.

(2) After regulation 14, insert the following regulation—

“Size and spacing of characters: special cases

14A.— (1) This regulation applies in relation to any vehicle imported into the United Kingdom which—

(a) does not have European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval; and

(b) is so constructed that the area available for the fixing of the registration plate precludes the display on the plate of a registration mark in conformity with the requirements of regulation 14.

(2) In relation to a vehicle to which this regulation applies—

(a) each character in the registration mark must be 64 millimetres high;

(b) the width of each character of the mark, other than the letter “I” and the figure “1”, must be 44 millimetres;

(c) the width of every part of the stroke forming a character in a mark must be 10 millimetres;

(d) the spacing between any two characters within a group must be 10 millimetres;

(e) the vertical spacing between groups of characters must be 5 millimetres;

(f) the width of a margin between the mark and the top and lateral sides of the registration plate must be not less than 5 millimetres;

(g) the space between the bottom of the mark and the bottom of the registration plate must be not less than 13 millimetres; but, within that space, the space between the bottom of the mark and the top of the name and postcode of the person by whom the plate was supplied must be not less than 5 millimetres.”(3)

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport.

David Jamieson

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,

Department for Transport

24th October 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 (“the 2001 Regulations”).

Regulation 3 amends regulation 11 of the 2001 Regulations. The effect of the amendment is to prohibit the use of a number plate on which the background is patterned or textured, or gives that appearance.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 12 of the 2001 Regulations. The effect of the amendment is that references in Part III of those Regulations (including Table B in Part 3 of Schedule 3) to “relevant character height” do not apply in relation to a vehicle to which regulation 14A applies.

Regulation 5 amends regulation 14 of the 2001 Regulations and inserts a new regulation 14A.

The effect of the amendments to regulation 14 is that the requirements of that regulation, which deals with the size and spacing of characters in a registration mark, do not apply in relation to vehicles to which regulation 14A applies.

New regulation 14A makes special provision in relation to the size and spacing of characters in the registration mark of certain imported vehicles.

(1)

1994 c. 22.

(2)

S.I. 2001/561, amended by S.I. 2001/1079.

(3)

As to European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval, see Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers (O.J. L No. 42, 23.2.70, p. 1), as last amended by Council Directive 98/14/EC (O.J. L No. 91, 25.3.98, p. 1). See also regulation 11 of the Motor Vehicle (EC Type Approval) Regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998/2051).