Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with the British Standards Institute on its review of BS AU 145e; and whether she plans to ban raised 3D and 4D number plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is part of the British Standard Institution committee that has recently reviewed the current standard for number plates. The committee has put forward proposed amendments which are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters often referred to as 3D or 4D number plates and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025.