§ 11. Mr. CanavanTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent assessment he has made of the popularity of the various coins and bank notes in current usage.
§ Mr. BrookeThe Government recently reviewed the United Kingdom coinage following a successful public consultation. The most popular option included smaller 5p and 10p coins, which will be introduced in the early 1990s. The Bank of England is responsible for the note issue, which it keeps under careful review.
§ Mr. CanavanCan the Minister tell us one other country in the world, apart from England, whose lowest value bank note is as high as £5 sterling or equivalent? If the Bank of England is so insensitive to public opinion that it refuses to give people a choice between a pound note and a pound coin, why not make Scottish bank notes legal tender throughout the United Kingdom instead of forcing people to use unwieldy pound coins which are so heavy, so thick and so unpopular that they remind me of a certain person on the Treasury Bench?
§ Mr. BrookeThe hon. Gentleman has made much more pithily the speech that he made on 8 July 1986 in proposing his Bill about the Scottish pound note. His abbreviation today was admirable.