Decimal Currency Act 1969

Legal tender

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Bills of exchange and promissory notes

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• (1) A bill of exchange or promissory note drawn or made on or after the appointed day shall be invalid if the sum payable is an amount of money wholly or partly in shillings or pence.

• (2) A bill of exchange or promissory note for an amount wholly or partly in shillings or pence dated 15th February 1971 or later shall be deemed to have been drawn or made before 15th February 1971 if it bears a certificate in writing by a banker that it was so drawn or made.

Conversion of references to shillings and pence in certain instruments

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• (1) On and after the appointed day any reference to an amount of money in the old currency contained in an instrument to which this section applies shall, in so far as it refers to an amount in shillings or pence, be read as referring to the corresponding amount in the new currency calculated in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act.

• (2) If a reference to an amount of money in the old currency contained in an instrument to which this section applies is altered so as to make it read as it would otherwise fall to be read in accordance with subsection (1) of this section, the alteration shall not affect the validity of the instrument and, in the case of a bill of exchange or promissory note, shall not be treated as a material alteration for the purposes of section 64 of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882.

• (3) This section applies to instruments of any of the following descriptions drawn, made or issued before the appointed day, namely—

• (a) cheques and other instruments to which section 4 of the Cheques Act 1957 applies;

• (b) bills of exchange other than cheques;

• (c) promissory notes;

• (d) money orders and postal orders;

• (e) any warrant issued by or on behalf of the Director of Savings for the payment of a sum of money;

• (f) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (g) any document not mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs which is intended to enable a person to obtain through a banker payment of any sum mentioned in the document.

Conversion of bank balances

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• (1) Where the amount of the balance standing to the credit or debit of an account at a bank on or after the appointed day is not a whole number of pounds, so much of that amount as is in shillings or pence may be treated as the corresponding amount in the new currency calculated in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act.

• (2) In this section “bank” includes the National Savings Bank and any savings bank as defined in section 7(6) of the Payment of Wages Act 1960.

Payment of certain periodical payments

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• (1) This section applies to any amount of money in the old currency payable on or after the appointed day as one of a series of payments of the same amount payable periodically, whether pursuant to an instrument or otherwise, not being an amount mentioned in subsection (3) of this section.

• (2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, where an amount of money to which this section applies is not a whole number of pounds, so much of it as is in shillings or pence may be paid by paying the corresponding amount in the new currency calculated in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act.

• (3) This section does not apply to—

• (a) an amount payable to an employee or the holder of any office by way of wages, salary or other remuneration; or

• (b) the amount of any payment to which section 6 of this Act applies.

Payments under friendly society and industrial assurance company contracts

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• (1) This section applies to all payments payable to or by a registered friendly society or industrial assurance company under any friendly society or industrial assurance company contract made before the appointed day.

• (2) The appropriate authority may make regulations with respect to the methods to be applied for the purpose of determining the amounts in the new currency payable in respect of payments to which this section applies that fall due on or after the appointed day.

• (3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2) of this section, regulations under that subsection may, subject to subsection (4) of this section, authorise—

• (a) the adoption by registered friendly societies and industrial assurance companies of any prescribed scheme for securing that under contracts to which the scheme applies no amount other than a new halfpenny or a multiple thereof will be payable in respect of any payment to which this section applies that falls due as aforesaid; or

• (b) the adoption by any such society or company of any special scheme for that purpose which may, in such circumstances as may be prescribed, be approved by the appropriate authority.

• (4) A scheme prescribed or approved in pursuance of subsection (3) of this section may include provision for securing that where any payments that are payable to the society or company under a friendly society or industrial assurance company contract to which the scheme applies are increased by virtue of the scheme, any benefits payable by the society or company under that contract which are referable to those payments are appropriately increased; but in relation to any scheme so prescribed that includes such provision, provision shall be made by regulations under subsection (2) of this section—

• (a) for securing that any person by whom any payments so increased are payable will, if he so requests, be notified of any corresponding increase in any such benefits; and

• (b) for affording to any such person who considers that the increase in the benefits is not fair in relation to the increase in the payments an opportunity of appealing to the appropriate authority; and

• (c) for enabling the appropriate authority on any such appeal to direct the society or company concerned to effect in the benefits to which the appeal relates and the like benefits payable under other like contracts an increase of such amount as may be specified in the direction instead of the increase complained of.

• (5) Regulations made under subsection (2) of this section may provide for the making of alterations in the rules of registered friendly societies in connection with the adoption of schemes prescribed or approved in pursuance of subsection (3) of this section.

• (6) The appropriate authority may make regulations for securing that, if at any time before the appointed day the halfpenny ceases to be legal tender, any payment payable to the society or company under a friendly society or industrial assurance company contract which is one of a series of payments payable periodically thereunder of an amount which, apart from the regulations, would be or include a halfpenny, shall be reduced or increased by a halfpenny in such a way that successive payments in the series are reduced and increased alternately.

• (7) Regulations made under subsection (2) or subsection (6) of this section may—

• (a) make different provision for payments payable at different intervals, for payments payable under different classes of contracts and for other different circumstances; and

• (b) contain such transitional, incidental and supplementary provisions as the appropriate authority thinks necessary or expedient for the purpose of the regulations.

• (8) Any regulations under this section shall be made by statutory instrument, which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

• (9) The following expressions, where used in this or the next following section, have the following meanings respectively, that is to say—

“the appropriate authority” means the Treasury;

• “friendly society contract” means a contract made by a registered friendly society with a member of the society in the course of its business in Great Britain, whether contained in the rules of the society or not;

• “industrial assurance company”, “industrial assurance business” and “collecting society” have the meanings assigned by section 1 of the Industrial Assurance Act 1923;

• “industrial assurance company contract” means a contract of assurance made by an industrial assurance company in the course of its industrial assurance business in Great Britain;

• “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made under subsection (2) of this section;

• “registered friendly society” or “society” means a friendly society registered in any part of the United Kingdom under the Friendly Societies Act 1896 or a branch so registered under that Act of a friendly society so registered.

• (10) The Statutory Instruments Act 1946 shall apply to any power to make statutory instruments conferred by this section as if the Industrial Assurance Commissioner and the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies were Ministers of the Crown.

• (11) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland—

• (a) for subsection (8) there shall be substituted—

(8) Any regulations under this section shall be subject to negative resolution within the meaning of section 41(6) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954.

;

• (b) in subsection (9)—

• (i) for the references to the Treasury there shall be substituted references to the Department of Economic Developmentfor Northern Ireland;

• (ii) for the references to Great Britain there shall be substituted references to Northern Ireland; and

• (iii) for the reference to the Industrial Assurance Act 1923 there shall be substituted a reference to the Industrial Assurance Act (Northern Ireland) 1924;

• (iii) for the reference to section 1 of the Industrial Assurance Act 1923 there shall be substituted a reference to Articles 2(2) and 3(1) of the Industrial Assurance (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 as that Order has effect, notwithstanding its revocation by section 416 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, by virtue of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Consequential Amendments and Savings) (Industrial Assurance) Order 2001

• (c) subsection (10) shall be omitted.

Provisions supplementary to s. 6

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• (1) In applying the limits imposed by paragraph 5 of Schedule 8 to the Finance Act 1966 (limits on amounts which a member, or person claiming through a member, of a registered friendly society is entitled to receive from any one or more such societies), any increase in any benefit under a friendly society contract resulting from the adoption of a scheme prescribed or approved in pursuance of subsection (3) of the last foregoing section shall be disregarded.

• (2) For the purposes of subsection (2) of section 2 of the Industrial Assurance and Friendly Societies Act 1948 (power to insure life of parent or grandparent for not more than thirty pounds) there shall be excluded so much of any sum insured to be paid, or paid, on the death of any one of a person’s parents or grandparents as represents any increase in any benefit payable by the society or companyunder a friendly society or industrial assurance companycontract resulting from the adoption of a scheme prescribed or approved as aforesaid.

• (3) Where a nomination made, whether before or after the appointed day, under section 56 of the Friendly Societies Act 1896 (which enables members of certain registered societies to dispose of sums payable on their death by nomination) does not specify the maximum sum of money which is to be payable by virtue of the nomination, and the sum to which the nomination relates exceeds five hundred pounds but would not exceed that amount if any such increase as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section were disregarded, the nomination shall not be invalidated by reason only of the excess, and the sum payable to the nominee under section 57 of that Act shall include the excess.

• (4) Where at the time of his death a member of a registered friendly society is entitled from the funds thereof to a sum which exceeds five hundred pounds but would not exceed that amount if any such increase as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section were disregarded, the power of distribution on death conferred on the society by subsection (1) of section 58 of the Friendly Societies Act 1896 shall apply to the whole of that sum, and for the purposes of subsection (2) of that section the whole of that sum shall be taken to be the sum which he might have nominated.

• (5) The general rule-making power under sections 137A and 137G of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as applied by section 8 of the Industrial Assurance and Friendly Societies Act 1948 as that section has effect by virtue of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Consequential Amendments and Savings) (Industrial Assurance) Order 2001, includes power—

• (a) to provide for the insertion in premium receipt books provided under that section of statements approved by him explaining the effect of any regulations made under the last foregoing section;

• (b) to prescribe the information to be entered in such books for the purpose of explaining the effect of the adoption by a collecting society or industrial assurance company of a scheme prescribed or approved in pursuance of subsection (3) of the last foregoing section.

• (6) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland—

• (a) for the references to the Industrial Assurance and Friendly Societies Act 1948 there shall be substituted references to the Industrial Assurance and Friendly Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1948; and

• (b) for the references to the Industrial Assurance Commissioner in subsection (5) there shall be substituted references to the Ministry of Commerce for Northern Ireland.

Registered stock transferable in multiples of one penny

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• (1) Any registered stock which immediately before the appointed day is transferable in multiples of one penny shall on and after the appointed day be transferable instead in multiples of one new penny except in so far as, in the exercise of any power in that behalf, other provision is or has been made as to the amounts in which that stock is to be transferable as from that or any later day.

• (2) In any prospectus or other document issued before the appointed day that sets out the terms on which any such registered stock is to be issued or held, any reference to one penny as the amount in multiples of which that stock is to be transferable shall on and after that day be read as a reference to one new penny.

• (3) Where the amount of the balance of any such registered stock standing in the name of any person immediately before the appointed day in an account in the register is not a whole number of pounds, so much of that amount as is in shillings or pence shall on and after that day be treated as the corresponding amount in the new currency calculated in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act.

• (4) In this section “registered stock” includes inscribed stock, and “the register”, in relation to any registered stock, means any register or book in which that stock is registered or inscribed.

Payments after end of transitional period

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Where an amount of money in the old currency which is not a whole number of pounds falls to be paid after the end of the transitional period, the amount payable in respect of so much of it as is in shillings or pence shall be the corresponding amount in the new currency calculated in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 1 to this Act.

Amendment of references to shillings and pence in enactments and subordinate instruments

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• (1) Subject to the provisions of this section and of any order made under section 11 of this Act, where an enactment or subordinate instrument passed or made before the appointed day contains a reference to an amount of money in the old currency which is not a whole number of pounds, that reference shall, in so far as it refers to an amount in shillings or pence, be read on and after that day as referring to the equivalent of that amount in the new currency.

• (2) Subsection (1) of this section—

• (a) does not apply to any reference contained in this Act or any instrument made thereunder or in any other enactment or subordinate instrument relating to coinage or currency, whenever passed or made; and

• (b) in the case of an enactment or subordinate instrument passed or made after the passing of the Decimal Currency Act 1967 does not apply if a contrary intention appears.

• (3) On and after the appointed day the enactments mentioned in Schedule 2 to this Act (which contain references to amounts of money in the old currency of which the equivalent in the new currency is neither a new penny nor a multiple thereof) shall have effect subject to the amendments provided for by that Schedule.

• (4) Where the expenses of any body established by a local instrument fall to be defrayed out of a common fund (however described) to which under any local instrument two or more authorities may be required to contribute in proportions determined by reference to the estimated or actual product of a rate of a penny in the pound, then in any local instrument that provides (in whatever terms) for the fixing or subsequent adjustment of the contributions of those authorities, references to the estimated or actual product of such a rate shall, in relation to contributions of those authorities for any period beginning after 31st March 1971, be read as references to the estimated or actual product of a rate of a new penny in the pound.

• (5) In this section “local instrument” means a local Act, any instrument made under a local Act, or any instrument of a local nature made under a public Act.

Supplementary power to amend enactments etc. referring to shillings and pence

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• (1) Where an enactment or subordinate instrument passed or made before the appointed day contains a reference to an amount of money in the old currency which is not a whole number of pounds, the Treasury, or any Minister of the Crown with the consent of the Treasury, may by order—

• (a) if the equivalent of that amount in the new currency is not a new penny or a multiple thereof, substitute for that reference a reference to such amount in the new currency as in the opinion of the authority making the order is the appropriate multiple of a new halfpenny (or if the case so requires a reference to a new halfpenny);