Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with LINK on the numbers of free-to-use cash machines.

The government is currently taking legislation to protect access to cash across the UK through Parliament as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022. The legislation will establish the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities.

With regards to the provision of free-to-use ATMs, LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has made 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. According to LINK data for February 2023, there were 39,500 free-to-use ATMs across the UK. Further information is available at: https://www.link.co.uk/initiatives/financial-inclusion-monthly-report/

Treasury Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of organisations as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-giftsand-overseas-travel