Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of other offences linked to vehicles with number plates that are non-readable by automatic number plate recognition systems.

On-road enforcement of offences relating to the display of number plates and any potential links to other offences are a matter for the police. Therefore, no assessment has been made.

The Government understand the impact of number plate crime and is determined to tackle it. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime including the use of cloned and ghost number plates.

The Department welcomes the recent report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Transport Safety and is considering the report’s recommendations. Options to support more robust application and audit processes, which would enable tighter checks on number plate suppliers are also being considered.

The Government published its Road Safety Strategy on 7 January 2026, setting out its vision for a safer future on our roads for all. As part of this, the Department from Transport is reviewing motoring offences and has published a consultation which seeks views on the introduction of penalty points and vehicle seizure for the offence of “being in charge of a motor vehicle with an incorrect/altered/false number plate”.