Dear Sir or Madam,

Please provide any documentation (documentation from Government
Departments or Agencies, minutes of board meetings, internal memos
etc) which is held by the Bank of England in relation to proposals
to place RFID tags, or other tracking devices, in bank notes.

Yours faithfully,

John Gilmour

We acknowledge receipt of your e-mail dated 4 July (our ref FF 21404).

We will reply in due course.

If you have any queries please contact the Bank's Public Information and Enquiries Group on 020 7601 4878.

Public Information and Enquiries Group
Bank of England

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Dear Mr Gilmour

Thank you for your email dated 4 July in which you ask for access under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FoI Act’) for access to:

‘any documentation (documentation from Government Departments or Agencies, minutes of board meetings, internal memos etc) which is held by the Bank of England in relation to proposals to place RFID tags, or other tracking devices, in bank notes.’

The Bank continuously reviews advances in banknote technology including how RFID could be used on Bank of England banknotes and its benefits and drawbacks. We have concluded that for a variety of reasons this technology is not suitable for use on Bank of England banknotes at this time.

In relation to your request for documentation, the Bank holds material which could be relevant. However, it is our view that the costs which the Bank would reasonably expect to incur in complying with your request would exceed the costs limit of £450. Under section 12(1) of the FoI Act the Bank is not required to comply with an FoI request if it estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450, as stated in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004.

We would of course be happy to consider a more focused request whether by reference to time or more focused subject matter. Do please bear in mind, however, that information relevant to your request may be exempt from disclosure under the FoI Act.

If you are unhappy with the Bank’s response, you may ask for that decision to be reviewed internally. In order to do so, please set out the grounds for your appeal and send it to:

Wendy Galvin
Public Information and Enquiries Group (HO-M)
Secretary’s Department
Bank of England
Threadneedle Street
London
EC2R 8AH

Or by email to [Bank of England request email] for the attention of Wendy Galvin.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

Yours sincerely

Stuart Allen
Deputy Secretary of the Bank

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