Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the access to cash via free-to-use ATMs in (a) rural areas and (b) low-income areas and with reference to the Access to Cash consultation, what his timetable is to introduce legislative proposals based on the consultation outcomes.

The government recognises that cash remains an important part of daily life for millions of people across the UK, particularly those in vulnerable groups, and has committed to legislate to protect access to cash.

From 1 July to 23 September last year, the Government held the Access to Cash Consultation on proposals for new laws to make sure people only need to travel a reasonable distance to pay in or take out cash. The Government’s proposals intend to support the continued use of cash in people’s daily lives and help to enable local businesses to continue accepting cash by ensuring they can access deposit facilities. The Government has carefully considered responses to the consultation and will set out next steps in due course.

Following the government’s commitment to legislate, firms are working together through the Cash Action Group to develop new initiatives to provide shared services. The Cash Action Group has stated that new shared services will complement other industry initiatives to support access to cash, such as mobile branches and pop-up services, as well as services for people who need to make payments in their own homes.

On access to free-to-use ATMs specifically, LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. LINK has committed to protect free-to-use ATMs more than one kilometre away from the next nearest free ATM or Post Office, and free access to cash on high streets (where there is a cluster of five or more retailers) that do not have a free-to-use ATM or a Post Office counter within one kilometre.

LINK also publishes the total number of free-to-use ATMs across the UK. As of January 2022, LINK reported that there were around 41,000 free-to-use ATMs in the UK. LINK’s Monthly ATM Footprint Report also publishes information monthly on the break down by constituency.

More broadly, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) publishes data on access to cash coverage across the UK. As of the second quarter of 2021, the FCA reported that nearly 96% of the UK population are within 2km of a free-to-use cash access point.