Face-to-Face Banking: Rural Areas

Peter Prinsley Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Westminster Hall

[Dr Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Wishart. Welcome back from the summer holidays, everybody. I thank the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for securing this important debate. I will focus my remarks on what the loss of banking services means for rural communities such as those in Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket.

Let us imagine an older resident living in Ixworth, Stanton or one of the smaller villages surrounding our two market towns. A payment that they do not recognise appears on their statement. They are worried that they might have been scammed, and they want to speak to somebody they trust, show them the letter they have received and understand what to do next. For somebody living in a city or a town, that would be a short walk to the nearest branch, but for a person in rural Suffolk, it means arranging a lift, relying on an infrequent bus service or paying for a taxi—only to discover, perhaps, that the bank is closed. That is the reality behind every announcement of another bank closure.

We hear that customers are moving online. Revolut, which is now the fastest-growing bank in the country, has no branches. But the fact that most people use an app does not mean that everybody can, and it certainly does not mean that every banking problem can be solved through one. There are moments when people need to talk to somebody. That is particularly important in my constituency of Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, where there are large numbers of elderly residents. When a bank closes, the impact spreads everywhere. The planned closure of the Halifax branch in Bury St Edmunds is another reminder of the services that we cannot take for granted.

I am happy that the Government have a manifesto commitment to working with the banking industry to deliver 350 banking hubs by the end of this Parliament. Banking hubs are sensible alternatives that give customers access to cash and the opportunity to speak privately with representatives of their bank. However, rural communities must be properly considered when deciding where these hubs are located. Residents in rural Suffolk should not receive a second-class service simply because of where they live.

Road Safety

Peter Prinsley Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Angus MacDonald (Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire) (LD)]

A year ago in my constituency, Lewis Knox, aged 16, Fergus Ward, aged 17, and Jordan Cameron, aged 17, went off the road and died—no other car was involved. It was an enormous shock for the area. Lewis Knox’s father, Alan, is the head of the ambulance service in the area. He and his wife, Elizabeth, are calling for graduated driving licence schemes, such as those mentioned by the hon. Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon).

When I was a young lad, I drove like a complete idiot. I have four sons, and I am fairly certain that they did the same. For young men—young boys—this is a particular problem. When they drive, they show off—bravado and all that sort of thing. The statistics are horrifying. Approximately one in five new drivers are involved in an accident within their first year of driving, and drivers under the age of 24 make up 6% to 7% of licence holders but are involved in 22% of fatalities and serious injuries.

[Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)]

We spoke about the graduated driving licence scheme in a Westminster Hall debate and referred to the situation in Western Australia and Victoria. Does the hon. Member agree that the lessons we can learn from there have absolute relevance to the situation here?

[Mr MacDonald]

All the evidence shows that graduated driving licence schemes work extremely well in reducing the number of serious incidents.

I have one more statistic to finish with. In 2024, 1,602 kids aged between 17 and 24 were killed or seriously injured in Great Britain. According to international figures, if we introduced a graduated driving licence scheme, that number would drop by about 30%, so it is well worth the Minister considering this.

Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Prinsley Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

Steel is one of the sectors that will benefit particularly from the trade deals this Government have secured, freeing ourselves of tariffs on steel going into the US. Indeed, the deal we secured with the EU yesterday means that we avoid tariffs on steel being sold into European markets, as well as now being exempt from the European carbon border adjustment mechanism, which is good for steel and good for jobs right across Britain.

[Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)]

8. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure cross-departmental planning in the development of the spending review.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Darren Jones)]

The Treasury has reformed the spending review process to ensure that it facilitates genuine collaboration across Departments. As part of this spending review, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and I have met Secretaries of State multilaterally in mission clusters, which have brought together Departments to agree cross-departmental priorities, increase transparency, reduce duplication and align spending with mission delivery across Whitehall, while learning every possible lesson from the failure of the Conservatives to ensure that it is never repeated ever again.

[Peter Prinsley]

Some 9,000 UK medical graduates compete with 15,000 overseas graduates for postgraduate training, meaning that many of our own graduates simply cannot progress into higher professional training, and either go abroad themselves or leave medicine. Does the Minister agree that the Treasury has a crucial role to co-ordinate spending on medical university education by the Department for Education and on postgraduate training by the Department of Health and Social Care, so as to ensure that public money spent on medical student education is not wasted?

[Darren Jones]

The Government are committed to training the staff the NHS needs as part of our 10-year plan. International staff clearly play an important role in the mix of staff that we have, but we also want to create opportunities for people across the country to work in our national health service. That is why, thanks to changes this Government have made, we have already been able to recruit more than 1,500 additional GPs since October who would otherwise not have been able to seek that type of employment.