Banned car number plates: naughty 25-reg number plates deemed too rude for the roads

March is here once again and as per what has become something of an Auto Express tradition, we’ve put together a rundown of some of the naughtiest number plates that the DVLA deems too rude to be used on the road.

Every March and September, the DVLA issues a new combination of letters and numbers, featuring the ‘age identifier’ number. Cars registered in March use the last two digits of the year, so in this case it’s ‘25’, and in September, 50 is added to that previous number to represent getting halfway through the year cycle, resulting in ‘75’.

All of this may seem rather entertaining – we’d be lying if a couple of the banned registrations below didn’t elicit at least a snigger from members of the Auto Express team – but it’s ultimately something the DVLA takes very seriously. 

With this in mind, the organisation holds two meetings per year to ensure no numberplates go into circulation that “may cause offence, embarrassment or are in poor taste”. The DVLA points out that it’s only a small minority of combinations that end up on the suppressed list, with the vast majority of registrations being publicly available.

The main point of contention for this most recent set of registrations is the number ‘25’ which, if you squint hard enough, can look a little like ‘SS’. This has led to some rather fruity combinations like ‘TO25 ERR’ and ‘AS25 HOL’ not making the cut. The DVLA also wants to avoid people using their cars to promote certain political issues, with ‘25 RUS’ or ‘25 UKR’ also being withheld for obvious reasons.

Regardless, in the spirit of fun (and also something close to serious journalism, because many of these plates are genuinely rude and offensive), we’ve listed below all of this year’s banned plates.

The UK’s banned ‘25’ car number plates

You can find a full list of banned 25-plate combinations below, so we’ll leave it to you to choose any individual favourites. Please note that some of these are more explicit than those we’ve picked out above and may cause offence or distress.

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