Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect on older peoples free access to cash of LINK’s proposed cuts to the ATM interchange fee.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. Government has been engaging and will continue to engage with the regulators and industry, including LINK, to ensure that it is maintained. At Spring Statement, Government also launched a public Call for Evidence on cash and digital payments which, amongst other things, seeks to find out how cash usage and need varies by demographics.
The Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in 2015 with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users.
As part of this, the PSR is monitoring developments within ATM provision. The PSR recently commissioned work to understand the impact on the provision of free-to-use ATMs that a reduction in interchange fees may have. A summary of the findings can be found on their website at this link: https://www.psr.org.uk/psr-focus/the-uk-atm-network/atm-impact-study. The Government has therefore not made its own assessment of the impact.
The PSR have also set out three requirements of LINK: that LINK must maintain the current geographical spread of ATMs; that any changes made to interchange fees must be incremental to allow LINK to monitor the impact and take action if the impact is not as expected; and for a greater focus on LINK’s financial inclusion programme, to continue to fill gaps in the network. The PSR has committed to using its powers to act should LINK behave in a way that conflicts with its statutory objectives.
Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the number of free to use ATMs in areas of (a) urban and (b) rural deprivation.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. Government has been engaging and will continue to engage with the regulators and industry, including LINK, to ensure that it is maintained. At Spring Statement, Government also launched a public Call for Evidence on cash and digital payments which, amongst other things, seeks to find out how cash usage and need varies by demographics.
The Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in 2015 with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users.
As part of this, the PSR is monitoring developments within ATM provision. The PSR recently commissioned work to understand the impact on the provision of free-to-use ATMs that a reduction in interchange fees may have. A summary of the findings can be found on their website at this link: https://www.psr.org.uk/psr-focus/the-uk-atm-network/atm-impact-study. The Government has therefore not made its own assessment of the impact.
The PSR have also set out three requirements of LINK: that LINK must maintain the current geographical spread of ATMs; that any changes made to interchange fees must be incremental to allow LINK to monitor the impact and take action if the impact is not as expected; and for a greater focus on LINK’s financial inclusion programme, to continue to fill gaps in the network. The PSR has committed to using its powers to act should LINK behave in a way that conflicts with its statutory objectives.
Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to instruct the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to intervene in the event that LINK’s Financial Inclusion Programme does not protect access to ATMs in areas that face financial exclusion.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. Government has been engaging and will continue to engage with the regulators and industry, including LINK, to ensure that it is maintained.
The Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in 2015 with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users.
As part of this, the PSR is monitoring developments within ATM provision. The PSR recently commissioned work to understand the impact on the provision of free-to-use ATMs that a reduction in interchange fees may have. A summary of the findings can be found on their website at this link: https://www.psr.org.uk/psr-focus/the-uk-atm-network/atm-impact-study. The Government has therefore not made its own assessment of the impact.
The PSR have also set out three requirements of LINK: that LINK must maintain the current geographical spread of ATMs; that any changes made to interchange fees must be incremental to allow LINK to monitor the impact and take action if the impact is not as expected; and for a greater focus on LINK’s financial inclusion programme, to continue to fill gaps in the network. The PSR has committed to using its powers to act should LINK behave in a way that conflicts with its statutory objectives, and will intervene if they believe the current broad geographical spread of free-to-use ATMs is threatened.
Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the provision of free to use ATMs in parliamentary constituencies.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. Government has been engaging and will continue to engage with the regulators and industry, including LINK, to ensure that it is maintained.
The Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in 2015 with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users.
As part of this, the PSR is monitoring developments within ATM provision. The PSR recently commissioned work to understand the impact on the provision of free-to-use ATMs that a reduction in interchange fees may have. A summary of the findings can be found on their website at this link: https://www.psr.org.uk/psr-focus/the-uk-atm-network/atm-impact-study. The Government has therefore not made its own assessment of the impact.
The PSR have also set out three requirements of LINK: that LINK must maintain the current geographical spread of ATMs; that any changes made to interchange fees must be incremental to allow LINK to monitor the impact and take action if the impact is not as expected; and for a greater focus on LINK’s financial inclusion programme, to continue to fill gaps in the network. The PSR has committed to using its powers to act should LINK behave in a way that conflicts with its statutory objectives, and will intervene if they believe the current broad geographical spread of free-to-use ATMs is threatened.
Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what changes to taxation and other fiscal policies the Government plans to make to incentivise the productive regeneration and reuse of vacant and derelict land in the UK.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The government is focusing on measures to address unused sites such as incentivising the development of derelict land through Land Remediation Relief. Also, to ensure that our brownfield and scarce urban land is used as efficiently as possible, the government will consult on introducing policy changes to make it easier to convert underused retail and employment land into housing.