Had a thought today, is it possible to buy a numberplate that used to be on another car? I'm thinking the registration from my first car is technically available because it was scrapped about 10 years ago. Would it be available or who can I contact to find out?

owning 2 private plates from my experience. I was told that to get a plate off a car it as to have a valid mot. And im 99% sure once a plate is gone its gone for good and doesnt end up back in the plate pool....

There is a great reg site that lists all available plates ill find it out for you, if you require! u2u me. And ill send once home from work

Unless it's changed in recent years I think you have to put a plate on retention before it's scrapped or it's gone forever. I used to work in motor insurance claims and we had a few problems with our advisors not realising and costing us a fortune compensating for lost plates.

You 'may' be able to get them to issue it via auction.
I made enquiries a few years back over a couple of regs that would have been Y regs from the early 80s. A few months later I got a letter telling me they would issue them and would be sold at auction.
Typically they went for more than i was hoping!
Of course its quite possible/likely the plates i was after were never issued, but its worth a try.
I would not mention if you do enquire that you are aware they have been registered before.

Yeah I told them it was off my first car

They said it's difficult to find out the status of the plate as some people don't fill out the paperwork properly, and they don't plan on re-issuing old plates

following on from this does anyone know if its possible to request specific reg at time of registration.

I know the reg I want and last time I looked it was available to purchase through the DVLA website.

Can anyone see any problem as long as I have the required readies.

I guess at worst you'll have to buy it as a private plate, but then sounds like that's how it'd work anyway. You mean choosing a plate as a non-private standard one?