asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress has been made to establish the identification numbers of banknotes stolen in the recent Northern Bank robbery; why a corrected list of numbers has not been circulated to homes and businesses in Northern Ireland; and what is the amount of stolen money now believed to be untraceable. [HL1128]

The Police Service of Northern Ireland continues to work closely with officials from the Northern Bank in the course of its investigation into the robbery.Police decided against circulating a corrected list of numbers to individual homes and businesses as it would not have been a definitive guide, but took a number of steps to communicate as quickly and to as wide an audience as possible the details of the stolen notes. The PSNI senior investigating officer conducted a number of television and press interviews and pictorial presentations of the notes have been shown. In addition, the serial numbers for three batches of new Northern Bank £10 notes, which were stolen in the incident, have been issued. The value of the notes is £16.5 million. These details are also contained on the PSNI's website.Serial numbers for £10 million of stolen notes have not been determined.