Written question asked by Lord Laird (Ulster Unionist Party), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Sassoon (Conservative) on Wednesday, 13 July 2011.

Banking: Northern Rock

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sassoon on 28 June (WA 412), whether they have a record of the totalvalue of Northern Bank banknotes which were not returned in the 2005 recall, and the note issues; and what they mean by ““declaration of notes by series””.

Answer: While the Government have records of the value of notes stolen, it does not keep records of the unreturned notes from the 2005 recall by Northern Bank. The Government's interest in commercially issued banknotes extends to ensuring that holders of those banknotes are adequately protected in the event of one of the issuing banks getting into difficulty. Reporting under Part 6 of the Banking Act 2009 requires commercial issuers to declare the total value of their notes in circulation for the purposes of noteholder protection. However, it does not require these figures to be broken down by design, by series or by year of issue, as that level of detail makes no material difference to the value of backing assets that must be held.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 10827; 729 c175-6WA
Session: 2010-12
Related items: Money: Northern Bank Notes
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Bank notes Northern Bank
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk