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Written question asked by John Hayes (Conservative) on Thursday, 23 November 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 November 2006. It was answered by Ed Balls (Labour) on Monday, 4 December 2006 on behalf of the Treasury.

Counterfeit Money

Question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many counterfeit (a) sterling notes and (b) euros have been seized (i) in the UK and (ii) elsewhere since January 2002; what (A) denomination and (B) sum value they were; and what their provenance was.
Answer

A total of 1,640,000 counterfeit Bank of England banknotes were removed from circulation globally between 2002-05 with a total value of £28,695,000. Comprehensive data is not available for the provenance of the counterfeit notes. Data is not available for the number of counterfeits of sterling notes issued by those commercial banks permitted to issue notes in Scotland and Northern Ireland.Between 2002 and June 2006 a total of 2,182,800 counterfeit euro banknotes with a total value of £117,487,191 euros were removed from circulation globally. This data is not broken down by member state. Comprehensive data is not available for the provenance of the counterfeit notes.The following tables give a breakdown by denomination and value for the above totals.

Euro counterfeits
€5 €10 €20 €50 €100 €200 €500 Total
Number of notes
2002 1,039 3,108 14,845 136,133 10,307 1,525 161 167,118
2003 3,209 5,335 149,518 314,846 54,575 14,026 950 542,459
2004 6,128 22,305 155,551 271,681 114,183 20,369 4,006 594,223
2005 5,790 34,740 126,960 341,820 40,670 20,370 8,650 579,000
2006¹ 3,000 12,000 132,000 108,000 36,000 6,000 3,000 300,000
Value
2002 5,195 31,080 296,900 6,806,650 1,030,700 305,000 80,500 8,556,025
2003 16,045 53,350 2,990,360 15,742,300 5,457,500 2,805,200 475,000 27,539,755
2004 30,640 223,050 3,111,020 13,584,050 11,418,300 4,073,800 2,003,000 34,443,860
2005 28,950 347,400 2,539,200 17,091,000 4,067,000 4,074,000 4,325,000 32,472,550
2006¹ 15,000 120,000 2,640,000 5,400,000 3,600,000 1,200,000 1,500,000 14,475,000
¹ First six months.
Sterling¹ counterfeits
£5 £10 £20 £50 Total
Number of notes
2002 105,000 142,000 185,000 7,000 439,000
2003 56,000 36,000 268,000 6,000 366,000
2004 20,000 17,000 287,000 6,000 330,000
2005 6,000 7,000 487,000 5,000 505,000
Value
2002 525,000 1,420,000 3,700,000 350,000 5,995,000
2003 280,000 360,000 5,360,000 300,000 6,300,000
2004 100,000 170,000 5,740,000 300,000 6,310,000
2005 30,000 70,000 9,740,000 250,000 10,090,000
¹ These figures only relate to counterfeit Bank of England banknotes.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
454 c193-4W;454 c193-4W; 104514
Session
2006-07
Subjects
Bank notes Forgery
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk