National ANPR standards
These documents relate to law enforcement automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and the National ANPR Service (NAS).
Documents
Details
ANPR is used to help detect, deter and disrupt criminality at a local, force, regional and national level, including tackling travelling criminals, organised crime groups and terrorism. ANPR provides lines of enquiry and evidence in the investigation of crime and is used by the police and LEAs throughout the United Kingdom. The following documents are issued in respect of the use of ANPR by the police and other law enforcement agencies.
National ANPR standards for policing and law enforcement (NASPLE) is issued by the Home Office to set out the standards for the use of ANPR for law enforcement purposes by the police and other law enforcement agencies within the NAS.
NASPLE is divided into 3 sections:
- Part 1: data standards which define the compliance requirements for ANPR data
- Part 2: infrastructure standards which define the compliance requirements for ANPR infrastructure
- Part 3: data access and management standards, which define the access requirements for access to ANPR data
National standards for compliance and audit of law enforcement ANPR (audit standards) is issued by the Home Office to set out the standards for the audit of the use of ANPR by the police and other law enforcement agencies.
Technical specifications prescribes the technical specifications for data within the National ANPR Service (NAS).
Supplier specification provides details of the technical requirements for installation of police in-car ANPR systems to meet the requirements of Regulation 109.
You can also read our guidance on developing and reviewing your ANPR infrastructure and the National ANPR Service data protection impact assessment.
You can read a notice which the rights of data subjects under provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 in respect of data held on the National ANPR Service (NAS).
Updates to this page
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Added the compliance dashboard for Q1 and Q2 2025.
Update history
2025-09-24 14:24
Added the compliance dashboard for Q1 and Q2 2025.
2025-04-15 15:15
National standards for compliance and audit of law enforcement ANPR updated with revision of reference in line with NASPLE 3.3 and to take account of the new NSAP. Compliance dashboard for Q3 and Q4 2024 published.
2024-12-10 16:50
Updated document ‘National ANPR Service technical specifications’.
2024-12-05 13:42
Document ‘National ANPR Standards for Policing and Law Enforcement’ updated as detailed on page 4.
2024-07-23 13:28
Added the compliance dashboard for Q1 and Q2 2024.
2024-05-16 12:03
Updated the national ANPR standards for policing and law enforcement. Details are in the ‘document revisions’ section.
2024-02-14 13:31
Added the compliance dashboard for Q3 and Q4 2023.
2023-09-01 15:49
Added the National Compliance Dashboard for Q1 and Q2 2023.
2023-07-26 16:14
Added accessible HTML version of National ANPR Regulation 109 supplier specification.
2023-07-20 11:19
Updated the National ANPR Regulation 109 supplier specification
2023-05-24 17:07
Compliance dashboard for quarters 3 and 4 of 2022 added.
2023-02-10 09:16
Version 2.3 of National ANPR Regulation 109 supplier specification added.
2022-10-06 09:01
Added dashboard providing metrics for compliance with National ANPR Standards for Policing and Law Enforcement (NASPLE) and the National Standards for Compliance and Audit (Audit Standards) by police forces and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs).
2022-07-19 09:58
Edited wording 9.4.3.2 – Disclosing of Camera Locations in Evidence in ‘National ANPR standards for policing and law enforcement’. Includes addition of the Pensions Regulator as an ‘approved LEA’.