Motorspot

What happens to your number plate when you scrap a car

30 Aug 2026 · 2 min read · by the Motorspot team

Standard registrations die with the car. Private plates can be kept, but only if you take them off before the Certificate of Destruction is issued. How to do it and what it costs.

Once a car has a Certificate of Destruction, its registration number is retired for good. That is the point of the certificate — the vehicle and its identity are gone together. For most people that is fine. If the car carries a private or cherished registration you want to keep, you need to act before the car is collected.

Standard registrations

Nothing to do. The number stays with the car, the car is destroyed, and the number is never reissued. You do not need to remove the plates before collection; the driver will take them with the car. If you would rather remove them yourself so they cannot be misused in the meantime, that is fine too — just hand them over or dispose of them.

Private and cherished registrations

You can keep the registration by taking it off the car and either putting it on another vehicle or holding it on a retention certificate. Do this before the car is scrapped. Once the Certificate of Destruction is issued the registration cannot be recovered.

How to do it:

  1. Apply online at gov.uk ("take a private number off a vehicle") or by post on form V317. The fee is £80.
  2. The car must be registered with the DVLA in your name, be taxed or on SORN now and have been continuously for the past five years, be of a type that needs an MOT, be able to move under its own power, and be available for inspection if the DVLA asks — the full conditions are on GOV.UK. A non-runner can fail the "move under its own power" condition, so sort the plate while the car still runs if you can.
  3. If you are transferring straight onto another car, that vehicle needs to be registered to you as well.
  4. When the application is processed you receive a new V5C for the scrap car showing its original age-related registration, and a V778 retention document or the updated V5C for the receiving car.

The age-related number the DVLA assigns to the scrap car is what goes on the Certificate of Destruction. Tell us when you book if you are doing this, and let us know when it has come through — we will collect once the new V5C has arrived.

Timing

Online transfers are often immediate; postal applications can take several weeks. Do not book a collection until the registration has been removed. If you have already booked, ring us and we will move the date — it is a five-minute job to reschedule and impossible to undo a certificate.

Plates on a written-off car

If an insurer has taken the car after a write-off, the registration goes with it. Ask the insurer to remove and retain the private plate before they dispose of the vehicle; most will do this if asked in time.

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