RegHunters Data Study

Britain is stashing away 2.3 million private plates... but not driving them!

New DVLA figures obtained by RegHunters reveal how many private registrations are owned, paid for, and sitting on no vehicle at all.

£790 million

paid to the DVLA in retention fees across the decade

Every 26 seconds

a plate comes off a car and is kept on retention, at the 2025-26 rate

773 plates

held for more than 30 years, not on a car since 1996 or earlier

UK 2,266,352

private plates held on no vehicle at all

A country quietly stockpiling registrations

These are not unsold plates, and they are not spare DVLA stock. A registration only appears in these figures if it was on a vehicle and its owner applied to take it off and keep it. Every single one represents a decision, a form, and a fee.

The habit is growing fast. Annual retention placements have risen by more than half in a decade, from 798,849 in 2016-17 to 1,208,657 in 2025-26. At the 2025-26 rate, somewhere in Britain a plate is taken off a car and put on retention every 26 seconds.

The industry has always claimed that private plates get treated as assets. This data is the clearest evidence yet of the behaviour behind that claim: it shows how many people are paying to hold a registration on no vehicle, and for how long. What each plate might be worth is a matter of opinion. That its owner thinks it is worth keeping is now a matter of record.

How long Britain holds on

Retention is not a short-term parking spot. Of the 2,266,352 plates on retention, 706,903, almost one in three, have been off the road for six years or more, and 205,393 have been held for over a decade.

Every plate on retention, split by time held

Under 6 years: 1,559,449 plates (69%)

6 years or more: 706,903 plates (31%)

By years on retention, as at 9 July 2026

Under 1 year 271,401 plates · 12.0%

1 to 5 years 1,288,048 plates · 56.8%

6 to 10 years LONG HOLD 501,510 plates · 22.1%

11 to 15 years LONG HOLD 167,321 plates · 7.4%

16 to 20 years LONG HOLD 24,610 plates · 1.1%

21 to 30 years LONG HOLD 12,689 plates · 0.6%

Over 30 years LONG HOLD 773 plates · 0.03%

Bar lengths are scaled to the largest band. The smallest bands are drawn at a minimum visible width; the figures beside each bar are exact.

The 30-year club

773 plates in this data have not been on a car since 1996 or earlier, before the current style of registration even existed. A further 12,689 have been held for 21 to 30 years. Whatever these registrations mean to their owners, that meaning has now lasted three decades.

1996

off the road since at least then

30+ years on retention

2026

still held

The cost of hanging on

Keeping a plate off the road is not free. The owner applies to the DVLA and pays an £80 fee to place the mark on a V778 retention document, which holds the registration in their name for 10 years.

Across the decade covered by this data, drivers made 9,905,449 retention applications. At £80 each, that is more than £790 million paid to the DVLA simply to keep number plates on paper instead of on cars.

Renewing a document costs nothing, but it does not happen by itself. A V778 lasts 10 years and must be renewed before it expires, so the 205,393 plates held for more than a decade have each been actively renewed at least once. The 773 plates held for over 30 years have been renewed at least three times.

The decade’s bill

Retention applications, 2016-17 to 2025-26 9,905,449

Paid to the DVLA £790m+

The year the habit changed gear

For five years, retention placements sat in a steady band around 800,000 to 890,000. Then came 2021-22: a jump of more than a quarter in a single year. Placements have never fallen below one million since.

Plates placed on retention by financial year

2016-17798,849

2017-18831,235

2018-19879,526

2019-20889,295

2020-21875,986

The inflection. Placements jump by more than a quarter in a single year, and never drop below one million again.

2021-221,103,622

2022-231,051,387

2023-241,100,788

2024-251,166,104

2025-261,208,657

Ten-year total 9,905,449 plates placed on retention

The full data

The complete figures from the DVLA response are below. You are welcome to use this data in your own reporting or research, with attribution to RegHunters and a link to this page.

Table 1: Plates placed on retention by financial year

Financial year	Plates placed on retention
2016-17	798,849
2017-18	831,235
2018-19	879,526
2019-20	889,295
2020-21	875,986
2021-22	1,103,622
2022-23	1,051,387
2023-24	1,100,788
2024-25	1,166,104
2025-26	1,208,657
Total	9,905,449

Table 2: Plates on retention by length of time held, as at 9 July 2026

Years on retention	Plates	Share
Under 1	271,401	12.0%
1 to 5	1,288,048	56.8%
6 to 10	501,510	22.1%
11 to 15	167,321	7.4%
16 to 20	24,610	1.1%
21 to 30	12,689	0.6%
Over 30	773	0.03%
Total	2,266,352	100%

Methodology and source

The figures in this article were released by the DVLA on 27 July 2026 in response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by RegHunters, reference FOIR13574.

Retention totals and the breakdown by length of time held were correct as at 9 July 2026. Annual figures cover financial years from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2026.

A V778 retention document applies to a registration that has been removed from a vehicle and kept by its owner. It does not cover registrations bought from the DVLA but never assigned to a vehicle, which are held on a separate document. The DVLA does not record the reason a registration is being held.

The DVLA charges £80 to take a private number off a vehicle and place it on retention. The fee has been £80 since 9 March 2015, when it was reduced from £105 and the separate £25 annual renewal fee was abolished. The figure of more than £790 million applies that fee to the 9,905,449 retention applications recorded across the ten financial years covered by the data, all of which fall after that fee change.

The rate of one plate every 26 seconds is calculated from the 1,208,657 applications recorded in 2025-26, averaged across the full year.

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