In the UK, new car license plates are released twice a year. Each time, the DVLA has to go through all possible combinations to ensure that a fresh batch that could be deemed offensive is banned from appearing on British roads.
From September 2026 onwards, UK drivers will start to see cars bearing 76 registration numbers on the roads. This is the second time this year the DVLA will have had to sift through license plate combinations, having done so previously for the 26 plates that were introduced early in 2026.
The license plates they are looking for are any that can be considered offensive, explicit, or otherwise inappropriate in some way. Nothing is taken for granted, as even some that many might consider quite funny are banned to avoid the chance that anyone will take offense to them if seen on Britain’s roads.
Yorkshire Live has recently published a full list of the ones that are currently banned, although we must stress that reader discretion is advised if you do read the full list. Some of them, however, are more obvious than others.
Why Can License Plates Be Banned?
The DVLA in the UK does not want cars to be driving around with possibly offensive, sexist, explicit, etc plates all over them. Some plates you might consider quite amusing, and very few people could take offense to them. In the past, the DVLA has banned plates such as EA76 POO and EA75 POO alongside FA47 NNY, BU67 GER and TO25 ERR. Two of those refer to distinctly British insults.
Others include P15 OFF, SH15 TTY, AS25 HOL and AS26 HOL, which are certainly far more obvious. You probably don’t need to be a genius to see why some of these could be deemed offensive; however, they are actually on the lighter side of things when it comes to the offense they could cause. The full list published by Yorkshire Live covers a wide array of possibilities.
According to the British publication, some of the combinations refer to wars and conflict regions such as Gaza, Russia and Yemen. Some are a bit more extreme, and others contain possible sexual connotations. Others, while scanning through the list, do look like they are a bit of a stretch. You have to really think about and see the potential link that the letters and numbers make in order to understand why some of these have been banned.
Have These License Plates Been Used Before?
The short answer is no; these are not license plates that have been used on UK roads in the past. These plates have been banned before they’ve had the chance to go on British roads; hence the DVLA scanning all possible combinations to ensure they do not end up on people’s vehicles. More than 1,000 in total have already been banned in 2026 ahead of the release of the new September 76 plates.
Ahead of the March 2026 registration change, which saw the 26 plates introduced, the DVLA was able to pinpoint and ban more than 400 license plates that could potentially have offended. For September 2026, it has found 513 specific registrations. That includes ten wildcard combinations that could have led to another 1,000 combinations, meaning 1,500 license plate combinations alone have been banned in September 2026.