£ Sterling Mr. Arthur Lewis asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the assumption that on the date when the £ sterling was decimalised it then had a spending or purchasing value of 100p, what is its present worth, allowing for inflation and the rise in the cost of living. Mr. Biffen Taking the internal purchasing power of the pound sterling as 100p in February 1971, the date of decimalisation, its value in February 1980, the latest period for which information is available, was 31p.