Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) (Amendment) Regulations 2002 and shall come into force on 22nd November 2002.

Amendment of Regulations

2.The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001( 2 ) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of these Regulations.

Further requirements for registration plates

3. In regulation 11, after paragraph (1), insert the following paragraph—

“ (1A) The surface of a registration plate must not comprise or incorporate any design, pattern or texture, or be treated in any way which gives to any part of the plate the appearance of a design, pattern or texture. ” .

Interpretation of provisions relating to registration marks

4. In regulation 12 (interpretation of Part III), in paragraph (1), in sub-paragraph (d), after “character height” ”, insert “, except in relation to a vehicle to which regulation 14A applies,”.

Size and spacing of characters

5. —(1) In regulation 14 (size and spacing of characters)—

(a) in paragraph (1), after “and (3)”, insert “and regulation 14A”;

(b) in paragraphs (4) and (5), for “The”, substitute “Subject to regulation 14A, the”;

(c) in paragaph (6), after “paragraph (11)”, insert “or regulation 14A”;

(d) in paragraphs (7) to (9), for “The”, substitute “Subject to regulation 14A, the”.

(2) After regulation 14, insert the following regulation—

“ Size and spacing of characters: special cases

14A. —(1) This regulation applies in relation to any vehicle imported into the United Kingdom which—

(a) does not have European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval; and

(b) is so constructed that the area available for the fixing of the registration plate precludes the display on the plate of a registration mark in conformity with the requirements of regulation 14.

(2) In relation to a vehicle to which this regulation applies—

(a) each character in the registration mark must be 64 millimetres high;

(b) the width of each character of the mark, other than the letter “I” and the figure “1”, must be 44 millimetres;

(c) the width of every part of the stroke forming a character in a mark must be 10 millimetres;

(d) the spacing between any two characters within a group must be 10 millimetres;

(e) the vertical spacing between groups of characters must be 5 millimetres;

(f) the width of a margin between the mark and the top and lateral sides of the registration plate must be not less than 5 millimetres;

(g) the space between the bottom of the mark and the bottom of the registration plate must be not less than 13 millimetres; but, within that space, the space between the bottom of the mark and the top of the name and postcode of the person by whom the plate was supplied must be not less than 5 millimetres. ” ( 3 )