Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of closures of cashpoints in rural areas on the rural economy.

The government recognises that while the transition towards digital payments brings many opportunities, cash continues to be used by many people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups.

The government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. This establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash and provides it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities.

Following this, the government recently published a Cash Access Policy Statement, which sets out the government’s policies on access to cash. The FCA is required by law to have regard to these policies when determining its regulatory approach. The FCA will publicly consult on its regulatory approach in due course. The government’s policy statement is available on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cash-access-policy-statement/cash-access-policy-statement

Regarding the ATM network specifically, 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 reports that as of June 2023 there are over 38,000 free-to-use ATMs in the UK. LINK’s Monthly ATM Footprint Report also publishes information on the break down by constituency, which is available online: https://www.link.co.uk/initiatives/financial-inclusion-monthly-report/