Andrew Gabriel wrote:

There is no longer any irrevocable cheque clearance date.
This came up on Radio 4's Moneybox a few months back.
If the funds on which the cheque was drawn turn out to be
stolen, fraudulent, laundered, or whatever, you can find
the cheque being bounced 6 months later, and people have.
This makes cheques pretty useless nowadays.

That's because 'clear' is the wrong word if you want to know if a
cheque has been deposited irrevocably in your account.

I think you need to ask if the cheque has been 'paid' or something
like that. This has been discussed quite a lot in the uk.finance
newsgroup.

--
Chris Green