My vehicle has a registration number plate on it, why doesn’t DVLA recognise it?
Until the late 1970s, the vehicle registration system was based on paper records held by local authorities. From the mid-1970s, registration records were transferred to a centralised computer system. This happened automatically when tax discs were renewed, and new computerised registration documents were issued. Owners of vehicles that were not re-taxed during this period were given several years during which they could send in their old style log books and have their vehicles recorded on the new computer, but this option ended in 1983. Registrations that had not been transferred to the DVLC system by 1983 were “lost” and are no longer recognised, but they can be re-claimed in certain circumstances.
