§ 17. Mr. Hendersonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much cash travellers are entitled to take out of the United Kingdom on each occasion.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettTravellers are normally allowed to take out of the United Kingdom up to £25 in sterling notes and up to £300 in foreign currency notes on each occasion they leave the country.
Travellers to the Channel Isles and the Republic of Ireland, who do not touch any other place on the way, are not restricted in the amount of sterling notes that they may take with them.
§ Mr. HendersonI thank the right hon. Gentleman for that reply, but will he confirm that when he uses the term "sterling" he is referring to Bank of 731 England notes? As his Department objected to the Bill that I introduced, to give Scottish bank notes the status of legal tender, will he confirm that the £300 to which he refers in the context of foreign currency would apply to Scottish notes and that Scottish travellers are entitled to take £300 instead of £25 composed of English notes?
§ Mr. BarnettPeople in Scotland are entitled to exactly the same number of notes as are people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland—namely, £25 worth. These are notes for the benefit of travellers, to enable them to have the small amount of money that they may need on the way, as it were. The £300 is available to people in Scotland as well as everywhere else.
§ Mr. DalyellWill my right hon. Friend repeat the assurance that he gave me in correspondence—namely, that the report by Mr. William Clark of the Glasgow Herald that Treasury officials spoke to SNP Members about using Edinburgh as a clearing house for the protection of the English pound and about the Scottish debt being paid off by recycling oil revenues is entirely without foundation?
§ Mr. BarnettI think I told my hon. Friend that in answer to a Question yesterday, but I am happy to confirm it today, and on as many days as he asks me.