Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 65148 on Bank Notes, whether (a) her Department or (b) the Bank of England has an equality, diversity and inclusion policy on the (i) design of and (ii) selection of characters to appear on banknotes.

The Bank of England is responsible for all aspects of banknote design and character selection, as set out in the Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954 and the 2025 Memorandum of Understanding between HM Treasury and the Bank of England, which can be found online here: Financial relationship between HM Treasury and the Bank of England Memorandum of Understanding.

As a result, HM Treasury is not involved in decisions on banknote designs or character selections.

Recently, the Bank of England announced that they will be launching a new series of banknotes and over the summer concluded a public consultation on possible themes to be featured on the new series:

Help us design our next series of banknotes | Bank of England