Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a regulator with sole responsibility for cash infrastructure to ensure continued access to physical money.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The UK has well-established world-class regulators overseeing financial services.
The Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) with a statutory duty to ensure that payment systems work well for those who use them. As part of this, the PSR regulates LINK, the scheme which runs the UK’s ATM network, and is closely monitoring developments within ATM provision.
LINK has committed to maintain the broad geographical coverage of the ATM network in the UK. The PSR has used its powers to hold LINK to account over its commitments and to ensure LINK reports to it on a regular basis.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to promote community banking facilities.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is committed to creating the right regulatory environment that allows banks to enter and expand within the market, and serve customers and communities effectively. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority established the New Bank Start-up Unit to help prospective new banks enter the market and through the early days of authorisation. In addition, the Government created the Payment Systems Regulator to ensure all banks can access payment systems on fair and equal terms.
The Government supports credit unions, which provide vital banking services to financially under-served communities. To help expand credit unions’ reach, at Autumn Budget 2017 the Government announced that where a credit union’s membership conditions are based on a local area, a credit union will be able to increase the number of potential members it can have from 2 to 3 million. The legislation to make this change was laid in November 2017 and comes into force in April 2018.
The Government also supports the provision of over the counter banking services via the Post Office. 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, 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 small and medium-sized enterprises. The Government looks forward to seeing both parties implement their plans for doing this over the year to come.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff in his Department have been seconded from (i) businesses and (ii) charities.
Answered by Simon Kirby
HM Treasury currently have six full-time staff seconded in from private businesses and none from charities. There are no part-time secondments.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department have had with (i) businesses and (ii) registered charities in each of the last five years.
Answered by Simon Kirby
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to support self-employed people who want to buy their own home.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Government is committed to making the aspiration of home ownership a reality for as many households as possible. At the Spending Review the Government announced a series of measures which will help people become homeowners. These include plans to deliver 200,000 Starter Homes and 135,000 Shared Ownership homes; increasing the value of Help to Buy equity loans in London to 40% from 25% and extending the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme for a further year to 2021.
These schemes are also supported by the Help to Buy: ISA, through which the Government tops up mortgage deposit savings for first time buyers by up to £3,000.
Decisions around the availability of individual mortgage loans are commercial decisions for lenders, including what evidence is required to validate income. The Government does not seek to intervene in these decisions.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to improve access to mortgages for self-employed people.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Government is committed to ensuring that the mortgage market delivers for creditworthy borrowers.
On 1 December 2015 the Government launched the Help to Buy: ISA to help all first time buyers saving for their first home.
Beyond the requirements set out in the regulations, decisions around the availability of individual mortgage loans are commercial decisions for lenders, including what evidence is required to validate income. The Government does not seek to intervene in these decisions.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will meet senior management of NatWest Bank to urge them to re-consider their decision to closes branches in Llangollen, Corwen and other communities in North Wales; and what steps his Department is taking to support high street banks in communities in North Wales.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Decisions on the opening and closing of individual bank branches are taken by the management of each bank on a commercial basis without intervention from Government.
Banks and building societies need to balance customer interests, market competition, and other commercial factors when considering their strategy.
The Government is committed to increasing competition to deliver innovation and good financial products and services for all bank customers, and part of the Government’s long term economic plan is to ensure that banks serve all sections of society.
The government welcomed the industry-wide Access to Banking protocol announced in March 2015. From the first of May this year, a bank must carry out a number of steps if it is closing a branch. The steps include establishing the impact of a branch closure before it takes place; finding suitable alternative provision; and putting satisfactory alternative measures in place before a branch is closed.
Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that Natwest and other subsidiaries of RBS remain as competitive as possible in the banking sector.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 1 November 2013, RBS committed to a new direction, focussing on its core British business, supporting British families and companies. RBS's new direction is supported wholeheartedly by the Bank of England, UKFI and the Government.
RBS and its subsidiaries retain their own independent boards and management teams for strategic and operational decision-making.
The Government's shareholding in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is managed on a commercial and arm's length basis by UK Financial Investments Ltd (UKFI).