Yes, but plates can easily be changed just for the test. I have never heard anyone being fined for a plate like XX 6 5OTA despite all the ANPR cameras around. Indeed I was late having my car tested on one occasion, purely accidentally of course. During the out of test period I had been up to Scotland, Winchester, London and loads of other places, indeed I estimated around 3,000 miles. Did I receive a note… of course not!
The correct solution is for the gov. to allow you to buy words or phrases for your plate and charge lots of cash for it. Those with vanity issues can then buy the word/message they want. e.g. I AM VAIN or VAIN DRIVER #1. Instead people faff about trying to make words by breaking the law. At least for the UK amateurs who have a call that fits the G or M style plates they don’t need to faff about with spacing, pay a nominal fee, get call on reg plate.
Sadly I have. Two separate friends have had fixed penalties and points.
Easier than activating a summit, I suppose 
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I used to own DXI 955, a Northern Irish plate. I mis-spaced it to read DX 1955. An irate West Mercia Traffic Policeman gave me a fixed penalty ticket on the M5 in 1990 for displaying it on my Fiesta XR2 like that. I graduated to a Sierra XR4X4 but sold the reg plate on with the car in 1995 as it drank too much petrol, 3 litre V6, but a very nice car to drive.
Now my reg plate is like Nick’s with two letters different. Bought at a DVLA auction in York around 1998. The EU logo will REMAIN for as long as it can as I am a proud REMAINER!
73 Phil
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Nick, Whats your address? I’ll post you 2 stainless steel screws to tidy that up!
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Rusty mounting screws or double sided tape that stops being sticky on one or both sides is an essential design ingredient in UK registration plates.
Nick’s plate could fail the annual roadworthiness test here if the examiner was feeling picky.
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Oh dear! I will have to think about changing my car.
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It’s a very valid reason Nick, go for it 
Looking at your picture is shaming me into thinking about washing my car soon Phil 
In fact ditto to Nick - where’s my clay bar!
I would never consider my call sign for a car number plate.
Surely, it is just pure vanity, nothing more !
Dave, would that be because it’s not available? 
pay a nominal fee, get call on reg plate.
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I don’t know about nominal but the DVLA want £999 for nine although if you are a G2,3,4 etc. it’s only £399. As far as I’m concerned they can keep the number plate and I’ll keep the £999.
Peter
G1FOA
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It costs £80 to transfer a plate, that’s the nominal fee. What the plate costs is a separate matter and depends on the purchaser, perceived value and supply and demand.
‘1’ plates always cost more because they are perceived as being worth more. If you ignore the case of amateurs where the number is a callsign, people buy plates because the 3 letters are typically their initials or you can spell a word. So if your name John Arthur Smith, you would want a plate ending JAS. So you would want preferably A 1 JAS before B 1 JAS etc. as it’s obvious A1 comes before B1. If you buy A 2 JAS then you are either cheap skate who wont pony up the readies for A1 JAS or you’re a dullard who wasn’t quick enough for A 1 JAS. Either way, (amateur plates excepted) having anything but A 1 JAS is seen as a sign of failure. The daft thing is it only costs £36 to change your name via Deed Poll in the UK. In which case instead of trying to get 1 AND as a reg plate and paying tens of thousands, the cost effective solution would be paying £36 and changing my name to J446 SJA instead. (That was a car I owned 20+years back)
ISTR the G plates for amateurs were made available many years after the G plates came out (1989-1990) with the amateur plates appearing 1996 or later. You should have punted when you had the 1st chance, it’s more expensive now because these older plates are just about all sold and are perceived as being more exclusive.
I DON’T THINK I AM VAIN FOR HAVING MY CALLSIGN ON MY NUMBER PLATE, JUST STUPID ENOUGH TO SPEND THE MONEY ON A PLATE THAT IS WORTHLESS TO ANYONE ELSE EXCEPT ME, BUT IF I LIVE AND DRIVE TILL I AM 90 I THINK MONEY WELL SPENT.
G3 TOO WITH TWO BLACK SCREWS IN THE APPROPRIATE PLACE DAVE WOULD LOOK LIKE G 3 T O.O.
BUT ON CHECKING DVLA WEBSITE - SORRY - IT IS SOLD. YOU CAN HAVE GI3 T O.O. FOR £399 THOUGH BUT YOU AREN’T FROM NORTHERN IRELAND SO CALLSIGN NOT SO relevant.
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Callsigns are an in-joke Phil. You have to be “one of us” to understand it. Names are something else.
Possibly Victor, possibly Hi !
I knew an accountant who had the plate H15 TAX on his top of the heap Mercedes. I believe he sold the plate, for quite a lot of money, about 15 years ago.
OK since we are now totally off topic, one of the neatest number plates I have seen in my area was sported on a car owned by a local business specialising in soft drinks using water from a local well and bought out by Coca-Cola in 2008. His surname was in fact Waters and his reg was H2EAU which I thought very clever. I don’t know if he still has that. https://www.morpethherald.co.uk/news/major-investment-boost-for-big-drinks-production-site-1-8050454