Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of bank branch closures in (a) 2014, (b) 2015 and (c) 2016.

The Treasury does not collect data relating to bank branch closures.

Decisions on the opening and closing of individual bank branches are taken by the management team of each bank on a commercial basis without intervention from Government. While banks and building societies need to balance customer interests, market competition, and other commercial factors when considering their strategy, the Government is pleased to see that the industry is committing to further improvements to protect those affected by branch closures.

For this reason, the Government welcomed the launch of the new Access to Banking Standard in May 2017. The Standard commits banks to ensure customers are better informed about branch closures and the reasons for them closing, along with the options they have locally to continue to access banking services, including specialist assistance for customers who need more help. The Access to Banking Standard is monitored and enforced by the independent Lending Standards Board.

Since January, 99% of banks’ personal customers are able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches. Government will have provided nearly £2 billion during the period 2011 to 2018 to maintain and modernise the Post Office network.