Why Drivers Face £1,000 Fines While 34,000 Number Plate Suppliers Pay Just £40

• Registering as a number plate supplier with the DVLA costs a one-off £40 for each place of business, while the minister told MPs on 23 April 2026 that drivers using illegal plates face fines of up to £1,000.
• MPs told the Commons that about 34,000 suppliers are on the DVLA register, and the government says it is now reviewing the registered number plate supplier scheme.
• Suppliers who break the rules face fines of up to £5,000 for not registering, up to £2,500 for plates that miss British standards and up to £1,000 for poor record keeping.

A £40 Fee Sits Behind Every Registered Number Plate Supplier in Britain

Every number plate fixed to a car on a British road comes from a supplier that is meant to be on a register run by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. The cost of joining that register is a one-off £40 fee for each place of business. That is the figure on the GOV.UK page for suppliers, and it sits alongside an application made online or by post on form V940 for a single place of business or V940/1 for additional ones.

A subsidiary company has to register separately from its parent. The page also says plates must meet British standards, with trailer registration plates the only exemption it names.

MPs think the register is now very large. In a Commons debate on reform of the DVLA on 23 April 2026, the Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew cited about 34,000 registered suppliers and the 47 million vehicle records the agency maintains. He questioned whether the DVLA can keep meaningful records of compliance across a register that size.

The 34,000 figure is an MP’s number from a debate, not an entry in a DVLA publication, and the DVLA has not published a count on the supplier page. It is still the figure on the parliamentary record.

For a driver, the register is a safeguard on a purchase that most people make once every few years. If a plate is cloned or made to hide a real registration, the genuine keeper of the car it copies can end up dealing with the consequences, which is why the rules on who can sell plates carry fines.

What Suppliers Must Do and What Happens When They Do Not

The GOV.UK page sets out what a registered supplier has to keep. For each plate sold, the supplier records the registration number, the customer’s name and address, and the customer’s entitlement to the plate. The supplier also records a traceable number taken from an original identity document, such as a driving licence or a V5C registration certificate.

Those records have to be kept for 3 years and handed to the DVLA, the police or Trading Standards on request. In practice that means a customer buying plates should expect to be asked for proof of identity and proof they are entitled to the registration.

The penalties are listed on the same page. Supplying plates without registering carries a fine of up to £5,000. Supplying plates that do not meet British standards carries a fine of up to £2,500 and a possible ban from supplying plates. Poor record keeping carries a fine of up to £1,000 and possible suspension from the register. Failing to report a change to the register within 28 days, including a decision to stop supplying plates, carries a fine of up to £1,000.

Mr Mayhew told the Commons about a case raised by another MP, Sarah Coombes, in which a manufacturer was fined £5,000 and given a five year ban from the DVLA register. Mr Mayhew called that outcome “madness”.

The DVLA works with Trading Standards on illegal supply, and the minister said roadside enforcement is a matter for the police, supported by the DVLA. The government is funding a roads policing innovation programme, according to the minister.

The Minister’s Answer and the Fine Drivers Face

Simon Lightwood, the Transport minister who replied to the debate, told MPs it is already illegal to sell or display ghost or non-compliant plates. He said that only DVLA approved registered number plate suppliers can supply plates, and that drivers using illegal plates can face fines of up to £1,000.

The £1,000 figure is consistent with the law on registration marks. Section 43 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 makes it an offence for a registration mark fixed to a vehicle to be obscured or to become not easily distinguishable. The person driving is responsible, or the keeper if the vehicle is not being driven, and the penalty on summary conviction is a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale. Level 3 is £1,000. A defence exists if the person can prove they took all reasonably practicable steps to prevent the mark being obscured.

The legislation.gov.uk page for the Act says it is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 26 September 2026. Section 43 deals with obscured and hard to read marks, so it covers part of the issue. The minister’s wider statement on ghost and non-compliant plates is a description of the law as he put it to the Commons, and the page for section 43 does not by itself cover every kind of illegal plate.

The government told MPs it is taking three steps. It is reviewing the registered number plate supplier scheme. It is considering a new British standard for plates. It is also exploring technology to identify illegal plates. The debate did not produce a date for any of those.

Nothing in the debate or on the supplier page changes the fee or the fines today. The £40 fee and the penalties described above are the current position as published on GOV.UK.

Registered Keepers and the Gaps MPs Pointed To

The debate went beyond plates. MPs raised the accuracy of the DVLA’s records of who owns and keeps a vehicle, which is the other half of the cloned plate problem. In the exchange recorded on the debate page, MPs said that about 7% of vehicles have no registered keeper and that 18,260 vehicles are recorded at the DVLA’s own Swansea office address.

The minister’s reply was that the vast majority of DVLA vehicle records have an up to date, traceable registered keeper, and that the government is looking for ways to improve accuracy. These keeper figures are claims made by MPs in a debate and they have not been confirmed in a DVLA publication seen for this article.

The reason keeper records are linked to plates is simple. A fine, a parking charge or a toll notice is sent to the keeper of the vehicle the camera read. When the keeper record is wrong, or a plate has been copied, the notice can reach the wrong person.

The DVLA also collected £8.4 billion in vehicle excise duty in the latest year, a figure given to MPs in the same debate.

What Drivers Can Do When They Buy or Check Plates

Buy plates only from a supplier that is on the DVLA register and be ready to show your driving licence or V5C and proof of your entitlement to the registration. A supplier that asks for none of that is not following the record keeping rule on the GOV.UK page.

Check that the plates are made to the British standard before they are fixed to the car. The GOV.UK page says suppliers face a fine of up to £2,500 for plates that do not meet it, and the driver who fits them can face the fine of up to £1,000 the minister described.

Keep plates clean and readable. Section 43 covers a mark that becomes not easily distinguishable, and a dirty or damaged plate is a route to a fine of up to £1,000 even when the supplier did nothing wrong.

If you receive a fine, penalty charge or toll notice for a trip you did not make, tell the issuer in writing that your registration could have been cloned, and report the matter to the police and the DVLA.

The review of the supplier scheme is the item to watch. Until it reports, a £40 fee and the penalties listed above remain the rules, and a driver using a poor quality or unlawful plate remains the person the law can fine.

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Sources:

• GOV.UK: Register as a number plate supplier: Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
• legislation.gov.uk: Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994