§ Mr. BayleyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the cost of redesigning and issuing the new £5, £10 and £20 Bank of England notes; and what will be the cost of redesigning and reissuing revised notes which are easier to distinguish from each other.
§ Mr. NelsonThe cost of designing the new £5, £10 and £20 Bank of England notes, including subsequent changes in design, falls within the normal research and development expenditure of the Bank of England printing works which amounts to some £750,000 a year.
In introducing the new series of banknotes, the opportunity was taken to incorporate features in the design and in the printing processes which reduced the cost of producing notes. The cost of printing and issuing banknotes amounts to some £60 million a year. The revised versions of the new notes will be issued in the normal course of replacing worn notes, so there will be no additional issuing costs.