Banned car number plates: these NSFW 26-reg number plates are ruled rude for the roads

We've not quite finished with 2025 yet, but Auto Express has already managed to get its hands on the official list of banned number plates, which the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (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’ll be ‘26’, and in September, 50 is added to that previous number to represent getting halfway through the 12-month cycle, resulting in ‘76’ for September 2026.

Some numerical combinations can look like letters with only a bit of squinting, leading to some hilarious results – the current ‘75’ registration, for example, looks a bit like ‘RS’, leading to some naughty registrations such as ‘AR75 RSE’. The forthcoming ‘26’ indicator requires a bit more imagination, but a handful of coarse compositions such as ‘AA26 NUS’ continue to crop up regardless of the age indicator.

Other registrations can be deemed offensive, though, which is something the DVLA takes seriously. The organisation holds two meetings per year to ensure no number plates go into circulation that “may cause offence, embarrassment or are in poor taste”. With this in mind, we’re sure you can understand why the likes of ‘GO26 HEL’ and ‘RU26 UKR’ are on the DVLA’s banned list for this latest registration change.

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

The UK’s banned ‘26’ car number plates

You can find a full list of banned 26-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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