The 1896 Locomotive and Highways Act meant numbers of vehicles on the "roads" had already reached 5,000.

The Motor Car Act of 1903 was created to identify vehicles and their drivers to uphold the law and track motoring offenders. All motor vehicles were to be registered, and to display registration numbers.

The Roads Act 1920 required Councils to register all vehicles at the time of licensing and to allocate a separate number to each vehicle. The number was to be displayed in the prescribed manner. People were also required to notify the local Council when they bought a vehicle. There were also licensing provisions for manufacturers and traders - a General Licence was the forerunner of the present trade plate system. Hackney carriages were required to be fitted with a distinctive sign, and to indicate how many persons the vehicle could seat.

The first number plates to be issued were of the format one letter and up to four numbers - specific to each council. The first ever registration in London was A1, issued to Earl Russell - he camped out all night to be sure it was his come morning.

The next formats were two letters and four numbers. These were replaced as and when they were exhausted.

By the mid 1930s three letters followed by up to three numbers series were introduced. AAA 1 was issued (by Hampshire County Council) in 1934 through to AAA 999 and the commencement of the BAA series in 1936. This process continued until the mid 1950s when the sequence  was reversed and the format became upto 3 numbers then 3 letters.

By 1963 as some councils found they had exhausted their allocation-  A 7th digit was added (suffixed) to the combination. This extra digit was a letter, which gave the age of the car. The registration year began with the letter A and ran from 1 January - 31 December, when it was swapped for the letter B etc..

In August 1967  the motor car industry demanded the changeover date for registrations was moved from January 1st to August 1st. The system continued until it ended with the letter Y on the 31 Jul 1983.

The letters I and Z were, never used as they were reserved for Northern Ireland, whilst the letter Q was reserved for kit cars and repaired write offs; for unknown reasons the letter U was never used at all.

In the 1960s it was decided that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre should be established to administer the ever increasing numbers of vehicles on the roads - located Swansea, it was supported by 81 Local Vehicle Licensing Offices.

From 1 January 1973 vehicles were required to have reflective number plates - black on white at the front and black on yellow at the back. Reflective plates were introduced so that unlit vehicles could be seen more easily at night. The regulations also covered the size, shape and character of registration marks.

By 1983 the "suffix" system was reversed to become the "Prefix" system

In 1999 for the first time there were now two plate changes a year, 1 March and 1 September.

In 2001, the new registration format was introduced; number plates would have a format composed of 2 prefix letters( the location identifier), 2 numbers (the age identifier), and then 3 random letters.

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