Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with representatives from Post Office Ltd on expanding the provision of banking services in post offices in rural communities.
Answered by John Glen
The Post Office agreed a three-year, industry-wide agreement known as the Banking Framework in January 2017. This agreement allows 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers to access their account at post offices and marked the largest expansion of face-to-face banking in a generation, allowing communities and businesses to withdraw money, deposit cash and cheques and check balances at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK. The volume of basic banking transactions undertaken at Post Offices has steadily increased since the introduction of the Banking Framework, with close to 130 million transactions in 2018.
The Post Office has recently renegotiated the commercial terms and service enhancements for Banking Framework 2, which will take effect from January 2020. Under the new agreement, there will be a significant increase to the fees that the Post Office will receive from the banks for processing transactions. The Post Office’s overall income through Banking Framework 2 will only increase further as transaction volumes continue to grow.
HM Treasury is very supportive of the agreement and recognises fully its role in providing continued access to over-the-counter banking services for customers across the country, particularly when a bank branch closes. However, these are commercial matters for the banks and the Post Office and they require full commercial freedom to consider what, if any, further banking services might be feasible to offer through the Post Office network.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect on (a) high streets, (b) businesses and (c) communities of the closure of local bank branches.
Answered by John Glen
The Treasury does not make assessments of the bank branch network. The decision to close a branch is a commercial issue for the management team of the bank. However, Government believes it is important the impact on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible. That is why the Government continues to be very supportive of the Access to Banking Standard and the commitment it places on banks to minimise the impact of branch closures, including by ensuring that customers are aware of the alternative ways they can continue to access banking services.
The Financial Conduct Authority undertook an analysis of branch closures as part of their Strategic Review of Retail Banking Business Models. This analysis can be found in Annex 1 of the final report (https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/multi-firm-reviews/strategic-review-retail-banking-business-models-final-report.pdf)
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing banking hubs in rural locations.
Answered by John Glen
Decisions on opening and closing bank branches are taken by the management team of each bank on a commercial basis. Banks themselves are best placed to make these commercial decisions based on their strategies. However, the Government has and will continue to encourage providers to think creatively about the merits of alternative models including in rural areas.
Existing services, such as the Post Office, already offer a range of banking services across an extensive network that ensures essential banking facilities remain available in as many communities as possible. Individual and small business customers can withdraw money, deposit cash and cheques and check balances at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.
Since 2010, Post Office branch numbers have been at their most stable for decades and 99% of the national population now lives within three miles of a branch. Furthermore, 93% of the national population live within one mile of their nearest post office branch. Almost 98.7% of the rural population lives within 3 miles of a post office.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what analysis his Department has carried out on the correlation between changes in crude oil prices and changes in petrol and diesel prices paid by motorist at the pumps.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The pump prices for petrol and diesel are affected by a number of factors including the oil price and exchange rate. It is important for motorists to be confident that they are being treated fairly, and that when wholesale costs of fuel come down, these reductions are passed on transparently, and without unnecessary delay.
The Government believes this is achieved through effective market competition. In 2013, the Office of Fair Trading found that competition in the road fuels sector was working relatively effectively, although a competition problem was identified in the market for road fuels on motorways, for which action was taken at Autumn Statement 2014.
The Government will continue to make it clear to industry that it expects it to pass any savings that result from lower oil prices onto customers.
The Government has also frozen fuel duty in every year from 2011 to lessen the impact of high fuel prices on households and business costs. By the end of 2019-20, fuel duty will have been frozen for nine successive years, saving the average car driver £1000 compared to the pre-2010 fuel duty escalator plans.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department is having with the devolved Administrations on government support for high street businesses.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
At Budget 2018, the Government announced a £675 million Future High Streets Fund to support local areas in England in developing and funding plans to make high streets fit for the future. Alongside this, the UK Government announced a business rates discount of one third for small retailers in England for two years from April 2019. As high streets funding and business rates are devolved, the Barnett formula has been applied to both in the normal way, and it is for the Devolved Administrations to decide how to use this additional funding.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions his Department has had with representatives of the petroleum retail industry on fuel prices in rural and remote areas.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Ministers and officials hold regular discussions with representatives of the petroleum sector on a range of issues, including fuel prices.
The rural fuel duty rebate scheme allows around 125,000 people living in the UK’s most rural communities, including on the Scottish mainland and Scottish Islands, to benefit from a five pence per litre fuel price cut. The government also recognises that fuel costs remain a significant part of business and household costs, particularly in rural areas. That is why at Budget 2018, the Chancellor announced the main rate of fuel duty would remain frozen for the ninth successive year, which by April 2020 will have saved the average driver a cumulative £1000 compared to pre-2010 escalator plans.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people paid the (a) top, (b) higher and (c) basic rate of income tax in Angus constituency in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Estimates of the number of individuals in Angus parliamentary constituency by their highest marginal rate of income tax for the tax years 2010-11 to 2014-15 are provided in the following table.
Tax Year | Basic Rate | Higher Rate | Additional Rate |
2010-11 | 36,200 | 3,500 | .. |
2011-12 | 36,500 | 4,700 | .. |
2012-13 | 36,500 | 5,000 | .. |
2013-14 | 34,700 | 5,900 | 400 |
2014-15 | 36,300 | 6,000 | 400 |
Source: Survey of Personal Incomes
Notes on the table
1 Figures have been rounded to the nearest one hundred.
2 The 2014-15 tax year is the latest year for which these figures are available.
3 The Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) is based on a sample of taxpayers. Values in the table based on particularly small numbers of taxpayers have been suppressed, to protect the confidentiality of individuals’ information.
4 Symbols used in the table:
.. Suppressed
- Negligible
. Not applicable
5 As is the case with the published Personal Incomes Statistics, these figures are statistical estimates and will be subject to sampling variation. The sample is not stratified by geography and all SPI estimates for sub-UK geographical areas (e.g. by country, region, county, parliamentary constituency, etc.) should therefore be treated with caution. For further information, please see the Personal Incomes Statistics release (Annex B), at the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-incomes-statistics
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to base customs officials in Scotland after the UK has left the EU.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The allocation of resources and staffing levels required by HMRC after the UK leaves the European Union will be dependent on the outcome of negotiations.