To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide an update on the progress of evaluating the potential benefits of a UK Central Bank Digital Currency.

The UK, like many other countries globally, is actively exploring the potential role of Central Bank Digital Currencies. A range of factors motivate the exploratory work, which the Bank of England has explored in their discussion paper, including: improving access to central bank money; increasing the resilience of payments; and developing more efficient, cheaper payments.

No decision has yet been made on the issuance of a CBDC, which would be a major national infrastructure project, however; as part of the process of research and exploration, HM Treasury and the Bank of England will publish a consultation later in 2022 setting out their assessment of the case for a UK CBDC, including the merits of further work to develop an operational and technology model for a UK CBDC.