GB plates will not be acceptable for driving abroad.

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Mar 5, 2020
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According to Auto Express the UK government has decided that GB plates will not be acceptable for driving abroad.

Instead we will be required to sport "UK" plates. This is to indicate the inclusion of N Ireland.

Date of introduction not finalised.
....and, no, it isn't April 1st !
 
Nov 11, 2009
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According to Auto Express the UK government has decided that GB plates will not be acceptable for driving abroad.

Instead we will be required to sport "UK" plates. This is to indicate the inclusion of N Ireland.

Date of introduction not finalised.
....and, no, it isn't April 1st !
Crikey and all these years some have been harping in about EU dictats and bureaucracies , when we are more than capable of creating our own. The way things are going we probably will not require the NI inclusion for too many years anyway. So don’t bin the GB ones yet.
 
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Oct 8, 2006
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Precis of an article in the Sunday Times on 4th July.

Now we are out of the EU it is illegal for us to display the ring of stars when travelling in the EU. It is legal for us to display a Union flag instead of the ring of stars: if Scots, Welsh, NI or Crown Dependencies want to display their own flag or country code they must also show a GB sticker.

HMG have notified the UN (who control these things) that we are changing from GB to UK (so as to be inclusive with NI and it will also apply to the other Crown Dependencies). We will legally be able to use UK from 28th September, and all UK vehicles travelling in the EU must display UK from the 1st January. As with GB the Scots, Welsh, NI and Crown Dependencies can show their own letters on the plate but must also display a UK sticker.

One thing that is common is that the flag on the plate MUST be a Union flag, nothing else is acceptable.

A good dig on eBay shows there are already plenty of self-adhesive blue sections to cover the end of the registration plate with a Union flag at the top and UK letters beneath. The catch of course for we caravanners is that we will need two packs as they come in pairs and we need one pair for the tug and half a pair for the caravan or trailer!

UK Crown Dependencies are the Isle of Man, and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey.
 
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Interesting - the article I read yesterday didn't explain the reason for changing to UK, but that makes sense.

It hadn't occurred to me that it would be illegal to use the ring of stars when travelling in Europe, but I suppose it's obvious really. I'm guessing we'd still be able to have the European flag if we wanted to, just not as part of the nationality identifier - it's of academic interest only to me, as the chances of us taking the car across the channel are pretty remote - for a similar cost to getting the car and caravan to France, we could fly to the Canaries, especially now there's only two of us and we can travel during term time!

So next question - if I leave my GB/Ring of Stars badge on my number plate, will that be UK Legal?
 
Jun 16, 2020
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So next question - if I leave my GB/Ring of Stars badge on my number plate, will that be UK Legal?

Don’t know, but you can buy stickers to go over your old ones, saves buying new plates. Look at Amazon or EBay. From about £2 and £7 for gell ones.

Example.

B6B2A271-718B-4746-AAAF-F68D194709EC.jpeg

If anyone does that, just a warning, I put some cheap ones on a couple of years ago for Brexit. They have stuck fine, but the background has gone pink.

Perhaps the gell ones would be the way to go.


John
 
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Don’t know, but you can buy stickers to go over your old ones, saves buying new plates. Look at Amazon or EBay. From about £2 and £7 for gell ones.

Perhaps the gell ones would be the way to go.

John

Thanks John - I was more thinking about not changing anything, as long as that will remain legal in the UK. I found something on the website of the UK Number Plate Manufacturer's Association which suggests that for driving in the UK it will be legal to keep a GB / Ring of Stars sticker on your number plate if you already have one, but if you fit a new one (or replace a number plate), it will have to be the new style.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the gov.uk website - which ought to be the definitive source for stuff like this - still refers to GB plates being the requirement.

If I DO need to change to remain UK legal I'll probably get new plates, as on the last couple of MOTs I've had an observation that my front number plate is "damaged but not badly enough to fail" - but for the caravan and the trailer board it'll be stickers all the way!
 
Nov 11, 2009
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Interesting - the article I read yesterday didn't explain the reason for changing to UK, but that makes sense.

It hadn't occurred to me that it would be illegal to use the ring of stars when travelling in Europe, but I suppose it's obvious really. I'm guessing we'd still be able to have the European flag if we wanted to, just not as part of the nationality identifier - it's of academic interest only to me, as the chances of us taking the car across the channel are pretty remote - for a similar cost to getting the car and caravan to France, we could fly to the Canaries, especially now there's only two of us and we can travel during term time!

So next question - if I leave my GB/Ring of Stars badge on my number plate, will that be UK Legal?
I understand that you can still drive in UK with the GB and EU stars on the plate with no plans for any retrospective action. I suspect there would be uproar if it were to be retrospective.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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If you go into Europe with the new UK-Union Jack logos on the plates will you also require a UK sticker of similar size to the old oval GB sticker, with us not being part of the EU? Until very recently the GB-EU Stars on the plates were sufficient.
 
Aug 24, 2020
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I have had "UK" plates on my car since 2018 when I bought it. On the left hand side of the plate it has the blue strip with the Union flag and above flag it has UK. I have no idea if it will comply with the new version. https://www.ukregplates.co.uk/

That's interesting, according to the website I refer in my comment above, the UK should be below the flag - but it seems like as long as you stay in the UK then old or new variations will be OK, if you go abroad you'll have to comply with the rules of the host country.
 
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Input your car registration number and go through the process to decide which is best for you.

I don't need any replacements yet as both cars have no national identifiers on the plates any way. But If I go onto the continent I will revert to what I did when two weeks after getting my licence I drove my dads Singer Gazelle to Switzerland back in the mid 60's... just an oval sticker but now using a UK instead of GB.
 
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If you go into Europe with the new UK-Union Jack logos on the plates will you also require a UK sticker of similar size to the old oval GB sticker, with us not being part of the EU? Until very recently the GB-EU Stars on the plates were sufficient.
It looks like Spain and a couple of other countries require an oval old-style sticker regardless of what's on your number plate, and that this isn't a new requirement in those countries, they've always asked for that (I'm going from web research, I've never driven a UK registered car overseas so have no personal experience).

But in most of the EU and the rest of the world, it looks like the UK on your number plate will suffice.
 
Jul 18, 2017
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I have always used the oval GB sticker regardless of what is on the number plate. I just pointed out that by sheer coincidence it appears that I may have a regisration plate that complies with the new changes.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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It looks like Spain and a couple of other countries require an oval old-style sticker regardless of what's on your number plate, and that this isn't a new requirement in those countries, they've always asked for that (I'm going from web research, I've never driven a UK registered car overseas so have no personal experience).

But in most of the EU and the rest of the world, it looks like the UK on your number plate will suffice.
We went to northern Spain in 2016 and didn't even give any thought to a supplementary oval sticker. The car then just had the GB+ EU stars on its number plates. I just assumed there would be a single rule throughout the EU, although I did know hat various countries had differences relating to long vehicles and bikes being carried etc. To me it was case of 'solo we just go".
 
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We went to northern Spain in 2016 and didn't even give any thought to a supplementary oval sticker.
I'd have been the same, I only found the Spanish requirement this morning when I was reading up on what this change would mean if staying in the UK! I found the information on this UK government web site

The last paragraph in the "Travelling in Europe" section - although as I commented above, that's out of date because it refers to GB plates not UK.
 
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I'd have been the same, I only found the Spanish requirement this morning when I was reading up on what this change would mean if staying in the UK! I found the information on this UK government web site

The last paragraph in the "Travelling in Europe" section - although as I commented above, that's out of date because it refers to GB plates not UK.
It's not out of date as the new requirement doesn't start until 28th September.
 

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