Financial Exclusion

Debate between Lord Empey and Lord Bates

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

Perhaps I may first pay tribute to the noble Baroness for her work as chair of the ad hoc Financial Exclusion Committee of this House, which provided important recommendations which the Government are steadily working to implement. The issue she raises is an important one. The way we pay for things is changing, as is how we use banks. Cash used to account for 60% of transactions. That has reduced to 40% of transactions and is predicted to go down to 20% by 2026. As I say, the way that banking is carried out is changing. However, we recognise that there is a particular issue for vulnerable people and vulnerable communities. For that reason, in January 2017 we launched the banking framework agreement between the high street banks and post offices. Some 98.7% of people live within three miles of a post office, even those in rural communities. We have introduced the Payment Systems Regulator, which monitors ATM machines to ensure that they are maintained as a source of free access to large parts of the community. We have a great deal to keep under review, but this is an important issue that the noble Baroness and the Government are very aware of.

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that post offices have taken up a lot of the slack caused by the closure of banks, but post offices close down as well and they do not offer the suite of services that banks can. People who are still dependent on cash are being squeezed even more. While I join the Minister in congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, on her work with the ad hoc committee, perhaps I may press him to agree that simply passing the buck to post offices does not solve the problem.

[Lord Bates]

I accept what the noble Lord says, but one of the points about the ground-breaking nature of the framework agreement with post offices on banking services is that 99% of personal financial services can now be transacted at the post office. That is helping to keep post offices open as an important part of the community. Some 95% of banking services can be provided by post offices as well. However, although this is a ground-breaking development, we are keeping it under review.

Business: Exports

Debate between Lord Empey and Lord Bates

Thursday 6th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, whether they are planning to provide tax incentives to businesses to encourage their staff to obtain recognised qualifications in exporting skills.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Lord Bates) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to supporting businesses to export. Businesses can currently deduct the costs of staff training from their taxable profits. The Government keep all tax policy under review, and any proposed additional relief must be assessed for its effectiveness, ability to stand up against abuse and cost to the Exchequer.

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that we have just been talking about Brexit—of course, in this House we do little else. I draw to his attention the fact that more and more emphasis needs to be placed on our ability to trade and provide services internationally; there are certain skillsets that people need in order to achieve that. The apprenticeship levy will apply only to England and not to other parts of the UK, and it would good for Her Majesty’s Government to send a signal to companies to encourage them to export and to upskill their people so that they could use the costs incurred by that qualification to offset against corporation tax. Surely that would send a signal to business that we are now focused on exporting, because it is going to be our lifeblood in the years ahead.

[Lord Bates]

The noble Lord is absolutely right to point to the tremendous opportunities that are going to open up to the UK in global markets for exporting. We are very mindful of that. We also recognise, of course, that significant investment needs to be made in understanding the complexities of trade. I pay tribute to the work of the Export Institute, of which the noble Lord is a member. The apprenticeship levy is available across the United Kingdom. In England it is for companies to determine how that is spent and offset against budgets; it is for devolved Administrations to determine how it is spent, but I would have thought that any investment in training our young people in the opportunities in trade, in particular, would be money well spent.