Charities: Banking Services

Lord Stirrup Excerpts

Thursday 23rd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I understand the point the noble Baroness is making; I live in south Devon, so I recognise the picture. We understand the importance to communities and high streets of access to banking services. The industry has committed to a rollout of 350 banking hubs by the end of this Parliament. Over 275 hubs have been announced so far, and more than 240 are already open. You can get a full list of hubs on the Cash Access UK website. If there is a particular place where there is no access to banking services, you can put in a petition, as it were, and it is obliged to look into it. This is an ongoing area of concern for the Government, and we have launched a review into access to banking services. I will happily talk more about that if noble Lords ask me.

[Lord Stirrup (CB)]

My Lords, I faced some of the challenges raised by this Question when setting up a charity some 11 or 12 years ago. At the time, questions were asked by others in this place about the difficulties, and the answers given then were remarkably similar to the answer the Minister has just given. Nothing has improved over those 11 or 12 years, so there is clearly something wrong with the system which needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Can the Minister pass on to his colleague the requirement to act on this quickly?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

My Treasury officials will kill me for this answer, but I must say that I recognise the picture the noble and gallant Lord has painted. When I came to read the pack for this Question, I had a decided sense of déjà vu. I will pass that question on to my noble friend Lord Pitt-Watson and he will get straight back to the noble and gallant Lord.