Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the reduction in free-to-use cash machines since 2017 on access to cash across the UK.

The Government recognises that cash remains an important part of daily life for millions of people across the UK, which is why it has committed to legislate to protect access to cash.

Last year, the Government held an 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 will set out next steps in due course.

Regarding access to free-to-use ATMs, 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 October 2021, 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.