Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of shops refusing to accept cash as payment insisting instead on card payment; and whether they plan to take steps to protect access to and the use of cash.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK to pay for essential goods and services. It is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses.
The decision to accept or decline a form of payment is a commercial one and, as such, the Government’s position on cash acceptance is that it is primarily a matter for individual businesses. However, the Government recognises the importance of cash as a means of payment for essential services and to the wider economy, and therefore welcomes the work of the regulators to monitor cash acceptance. For example, research published by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2020 found that 98 per cent of small businesses surveyed would never turn away a customer if they needed to pay in cash.
The Government also recognises it is important that people can withdraw and deposit cash with ease, without which it is more difficult for cash to be used as a means of payment. The Financial Conduct Authority has recently assumed regulatory responsibility for protecting access to cash, and its new rules went live on 18 September. Under these rules, following a request from a local community or the closure of a cash access facility, firms that have been designated by the Government to be subject to the FCA’s regime are required to undertake an assessment of a community’s cash access needs and to put in place a new service if necessary.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they are making with regard to their River Wye Action Plan, published on 12 April.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The River Wye is one of our most important, iconic rivers. The level of pollution in the River Wye is unacceptable. That’s why this Government is introducing its first steps to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas.
Defra and its arm's length bodies, the Environment Agency and Natural England, continue to work with the Welsh Government, farmers and local partners on how we collectively can improve the river.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they gave to the Report from the Communications and Digital Committee Digital exclusion (3rd Report, Session 2022–23, HL Paper 219) when removing the postal address for HMRC from tax code notices.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
HMRC could not have considered the 2022-23 Communications and Digital Committee Report on Digital Exclusion when removing the postal address from tax code notices, as this change occurred over 5 years ago. In keeping with the HMRC Charter principles, the Department aims to balance digital initiatives with accessibility for those facing digital exclusion.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the (1) median, and (2) upper decile, wait time for His Majesty's Revenue and Customs to answer telephone calls.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
HMRC does not report on the median or upper decile wait times for telephone calls. However, HMRC publishes data on the average speed of answer for customer calls and the percentage of calls where the customer waited more than 10 minutes.
This information can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they do not include a postal address option on tax code notices to enable digitally excluded people to contact HMRC more easily.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
HMRC removed postal address from notices to encourage customers to use their digital services and interact with them online through their Personal Tax Account. Customers can submit queries electronically via HMRC’s iForm, which is handled by a dedicated team similar post correspondence.
For those unable to engage online, HMRC continues to provide support through telephone, including the Extra Support Service. This service is for customers who cannot contact HMRC due to health or personal issues. They can request phone, video, or in-person appointments when calling the helplines, and HMRC’s advisers will assess their circumstances to offer the best option for them.
More information can be found on the Extra Support Service at:
Get help from HMRC if you need extra support: Help you can get - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for ensuring that setting up a Government Gateway account is more straightforward and accessible.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
A simple Government Gateway account can be created with only an email address. The customer is provided with a unique username (Government Gateway ID) and is asked to create a password. This account will not have identity checks associated to it, so can only be used to access Government services which do not require identity checking. Where a customer needs to access services requiring identity checking, additional Identity Verification steps are provided by Government Gateway, based on the identity information the customer has available to them. It is recognised that this can be difficult for some customers, particularly those with limited digital skills or limited documented identity sources.
All Government Gateway Services follow accessibility rules and guidelines, when building, improving, or changing our systems. As well as completing user research and user testing to understand the impact to our customers. This testing is completed with a wide range of different users to understand the impact on our customers.
A Disability Impact Assessment is always completed, working with our accessibility partners to ensure that all accessibility needs are considered in anything we do.
From Spring 2024 onwards, HMRC will begin to migrate new and some existing Government Gateway customers to GOV.UK One Login. This is the Governments new strategic authentication and identity checking system, operated by the Government Digital Service in Cabinet Office, which is making it easier and faster for users to prove and reuse their identity to access the government services they need. Improving accessibility is at the heart of GOV.UK One Login; it offers multiple ways for people to prove who they are, including an in-person option, and a customer support centre to help users with lower digital skills
Initially, only a small number of users will be able to access HMRC services through GOV.UK One Login, with volumes building over time. This measured approach is designed to ensure a high quality experience for users as we expand its roll out.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the prevalence of businesses refusing cash payments; and what steps they will take to ensure that cash continues to be accepted by businesses.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government does not collect data on the types of payments that are accepted by businesses. Nonetheless, the government recognises that many people continue to transact in cash across the UK and has legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash.
The government considers that this legislation will support organisations, including local businesses, to continue accepting cash by ensuring that they have reasonable access to cash deposit facilities.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to introduce an equivalent of the Welsh Access Broadband Cymru scheme in England.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) scheme is run by the Welsh Government and provides grants to fund (or part-fund) the installation costs of new broadband connections for homes and businesses in Wales. New connections through this scheme must deliver a step change in speed, with at least double current download speeds. However, it does not require all connections to be gigabit-capable.
The UK Government’s focus is on the delivery of Project Gigabit across the whole of the UK. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Over 75% of UK premises now have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection, which is a significant increase from 6% in January 2019.
We are delivering a series of procurements to provide subsidies to broadband suppliers to build gigabit-capable infrastructure to premises that will not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans alone. We have already awarded eight Project Gigabit contracts and launched a further 18 procurements across the country, making over £1.2 billion of funding available to cover up to 850,000 premises. The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme also provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband via local community broadband projects.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints they have received about difficulty accessing the Government Gateway.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The HMRC Technical help desk received 508 complaints for the period March 2022 to March 2023.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to make the Government Gateway more accessible for new users.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Before a customer can interact with HMRC online services we need to be confident that the customer has the right to do so and that customer data is suitably protected. Core tools that help HMRC to gain this confidence are:
HMRC currently use Government Gateway and HMRC Identity Service for online authentication and identity verification respectively but are planning to migrate to a new service titled Gov.UK One Login.
Gov.UK One Login is a cross-Government service being developed by Government Digital Service (GDS). The service aims to simplify access to all Government services by allowing a customer to prove their identity once and to then re-use that identity. This reduces the barrier created in requiring customers to prove their identity multiple times across different Government departments.
Accessibility and inclusivity are a priority for the programme and GDS have a plan of activity to improve inclusion over time. Examples include:
This intention to migrate to Gov.UK One Login as the cross-Government strategic solution means that HMRC will limit any activity to increase accessibility within Government Gateway and the internal HMRC identity verification services. This is due to the limited remaining window to gain benefit from improvements to those services and the need to avoid duplication of effort.