Draft Northern Ireland Banknote (Designation of Authorised Bank) Regulations 2020

Pat McFadden Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2020 General Committees

[Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. As the Minister said, these regulations change the authority for issuing Ulster Bank notes in Northern Ireland from Ulster Bank to NatWest. The banks are part of the same group, and we therefore agree that this is a technical change that should not make any difference to the Northern Ireland public. We welcome, in particular, regulation 6, which makes it clear that the change will not affect the validity of banknotes previously issued by Ulster Bank; they will have the same validity as before.

As the Minister said, there is a long tradition of having separate banknotes in Northern Ireland and Scotland. They are valued and appreciated by the public. NatWest bank is going through a name and branding change. Its previous guise, RBS, is a note-issuer of long-standing experience. It will continue to issue distinct notes under the Ulster Bank brand in Northern Ireland.

It would be tempting to ask the Minister lots of questions, not so much about the design or authorisation of these notes as about the decline in their value in recent years. As of this morning, that decline was about 17% over the past four years, under the Government’s watch. However, I fear that if I went too far down that road, you might tell me that I was not keeping strictly within the terms of the regulations, Mr Mundell, so I will leave the discussion of the Government’s record of devaluing the pound for another day. Instead, I make a plea to the Minister: if the Treasury is planning to announce a stimulus package in the coming weeks, will it take into account the full and specific circumstances of Northern Ireland, to help the economy there recover from the economic consequences of lockdown, and to insulate it against any damage that may be forthcoming from the agreement reached between the UK and the EU?

We do not intend to divide the Committee on the regulations, and we hope that these bank notes issued in Northern Ireland will continue to be popular long into the future.