Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the social effects of bank branch closures on lower-income communities.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Treasury does not collect data relating to bank branch closures.
While the decision to close a branch remains a commercial judgement for banks, the impact on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible.
The industry’s Access to Banking Standard, launched in May 2017, commits banks to inform customers and stakeholders of the decision to close a branch as soon as the bank is operationally ready to do so. Banks must provide a minimum of 12 weeks’ notice but are free to provide more. RBS, for example, generally provides 6 months’ notice. The Access to Banking Standard also ensures customers understand the options they have locally to continue to access banking services, including specialist assistance for customers who need more help. Banks’ obligations under the Access to Banking Standard are monitored and enforced by the independent Lending Standards Board.
99% of banks’ personal and 95% of banks’ business customers are now able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches. At Autumn Budget 2017, I wrote to the Post Office and UK Finance to ask them to raise public awareness of the banking services available at the Post Office for individuals and SMEs. Government will have provided nearly £2 billion during the period 2011 to 2018 to maintain and modernise the Post Office network, and has recently announced an additional £370 million of funding for the period 2018-2021.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of changes in the level of income of public sector employees since the public sector pay cap was introduced.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The ONS publishes the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which includes median gross annual earnings in the public sector. A time series of this data from 1997 to 2017 can be accessed via the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/ashe1997to2015selectedestimates