The DVLA offers prefix, suffix, new-style and dateless registration plates for sale on their website, www.dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk. All available plates are viewable, but a fee of £137 is payable if you wish to purchase a list of them. You can request a copy of this list by sending your payment to DVLA Personalised Registrations, C2E, Swansea SA99 1DN.

You can only use the plates on a vehicle of equal age or newer. You are not permitted to carry them on an older car in order to make it appear to be a more recent model. For this reason, it is important to know the issue dates for prefix, suffix and new-style registrations.

DVLA will not resurrect old and void registrations for sale. This includes the registration plates from scrapped or written off vehicles. However, if there is a particular plate you are interested in, you can register your interest with DVLA and they will inform you if the current position on the resurrection of plates changes.

Similarly, there are no current plans to offer Q registrations for sale. Q registrations have long been used to identify that the origins or age of a vehicle are uncertain. The Q mark is a consumer protection measure and a change to the current rules surrounding these being unavailable for purchase, transfer or retention would adversely affect the degree of protection offered. To allow the sale of Q marks would be costly and it is likely there would be little return, as they would only be eligible for assigning to a limited number of vehicles.