Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many consultations have been undertaken on proposed branch closures since the announcement of the Access to Banking Protocol; and how many of those consultations resulted in the branch remaining open.
Answered by John Glen
The Treasury does not hold data on bank branch closures. The decision to close a branch remains a commercial judgement for banks. However, the impact on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible.
The Access to Banking Protocol was a 2015 industry-wide agreement on bank branch closures, designed to help minimise their impact on customers and communities. In November 2016, Professor Russel Griggs published an independent ‘one year on’ review of the Protocol, following which the new Access to Banking Standard came into effect in May 2017. The Standard commits banks to ensure personal and business 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.
99% of banks’ personal and 95% of banks’ business 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. At Autumn Budget 2017, my predecessor 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. The Government is committed to ensuring that communities across the UK are fully aware of the important services that remain available to them at their local Post Office, even if their bank branch is closed.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people who live more than (a) five miles and (b) 10 miles from a bank branch.
Answered by John Glen
The Treasury does not hold data on bank branch closures. The decision to close a branch remains a commercial judgement for banks. However, the impact on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible.
The Access to Banking Protocol was a 2015 industry-wide agreement on bank branch closures, designed to help minimise their impact on customers and communities. In November 2016, Professor Russel Griggs published an independent ‘one year on’ review of the Protocol, following which the new Access to Banking Standard came into effect in May 2017. The Standard commits banks to ensure personal and business 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.
99% of banks’ personal and 95% of banks’ business 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. At Autumn Budget 2017, my predecessor 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. The Government is committed to ensuring that communities across the UK are fully aware of the important services that remain available to them at their local Post Office, even if their bank branch is closed.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 4.17 of the Autumn Budget 2017, what assessment he has made of the effect of freezing alcohol duties on levels of alcohol consumption.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Treasury engages with a wide variety of organisations to understand policy impacts, including the impact on public health.
Public Health England supports local authorities in commissioning effective alcohol prevention and treatment services by providing bespoke advice on good practice to help them meet the needs of their local population. In addition, the UK Chief Medical Officers have produced new low risk drinking guidelines which provide the public with the latest information about the health risks of different levels and patterns of drinking. The guidelines are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-consumption-advice-on-low-risk-drinking
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 4.17 of the Autumn Budget 2017, what assessment he has made of the effect of freezing alcohol duties on alcohol-related hospital admissions.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Treasury engages with a wide variety of organisations to understand policy impacts, including the impact on public health.
Public Health England supports local authorities in commissioning effective alcohol prevention and treatment services by providing bespoke advice on good practice to help them meet the needs of their local population. In addition, the UK Chief Medical Officers have produced new low risk drinking guidelines which provide the public with the latest information about the health risks of different levels and patterns of drinking. The guidelines are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-consumption-advice-on-low-risk-drinking
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 4.17 of the Autumn Budget 2017, what assessment he has made of the effect of freezing alcohol duties on alcohol-related deaths.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Treasury engages with a wide variety of organisations to understand policy impacts, including the impact on public health.
Public Health England supports local authorities in commissioning effective alcohol prevention and treatment services by providing bespoke advice on good practice to help them meet the needs of their local population. In addition, the UK Chief Medical Officers have produced new low risk drinking guidelines which provide the public with the latest information about the health risks of different levels and patterns of drinking. The guidelines are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-consumption-advice-on-low-risk-drinking
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government is assessing the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the EU template for public country-by-country reporting.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Knowing who ultimately owns and controls a company is a crucial part of the global fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. The UK is leading by example and our freely accessible public register of company beneficial ownership went live in June 2016.
Last year, the UK co-launched a ground breaking new initiative with the EU G5 for the systematic exchange of beneficial ownership information. Since launching the initiative, over 50 countries, including all of the Crown Dependencies and relevant Overseas Territories, have signed up.
Building on the success of that multilateral approach, the UK is now pushing for multilateral agreement on a model of public country-by-country reporting (CBCR).
It is important that there is a level of international support and co-ordination that leads to both domestic and foreign headquartered groups being required to report information for a comprehensive range of countries in which they operate.
That is necessary to ensure that public CBCR meets its objective and to avoid the initiative distorting business decisions on their group structure and headquarter location.
The UK is, as part of this, engaging constructively with the European Commission proposal for public CBCR.
That includes the high-level aims of the Directive, and the more detailed aspects of the Directive that are alluded to in the question, on which discussions are still ongoing.