Clause 43
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Stephen Ladyman (Minister of State, Department for Transport; South Thanet, Labour)
The police already have powers to stop individuals who have changed their number plate in such a way that it no longer conforms to the standard. I would not for one second want to discourage people from having personalised number plates. Indeed, the DVLA makes a good deal of money for the taxpayer from auctioning them, and if anybody named Mr. Singh or Dr. Singh is listening to our debate, I can tell them that the forthcoming DVLA auction will include the number plate 51NGH and various extensions of that. I hope that it will raise a great deal of money for the British taxpayer.
However, the numbers must look like numbers, and the spacing needs to be such that it is clear which part of the plate is numbers and which part is letters. If anybody has played around with their number plate in such a way as to make it difficult to read, or if it is in any way not obvious what the original number plate was, the police should take enforcement action against them.