Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of adult UK citizens without a UK bank account.

The Treasury has made no such estimate. However, independent estimates, such as those reported in the University of Birmingham’s Financial Inclusion Annual Monitoring Report 2016, indicate that approximately 1.71 million adults in the UK do not have access to a bank account in their own name.

The Government is committed to improving access to financial services. Access to a transactional bank account is key to enabling people to manage their money on a day-to-day basis effectively, securely and confidently.

Since September 2016, the nine largest personal current account providers in the UK are legally required to offer basic bank accounts to customers who do not have a bank account or who are ineligible for a bank’s standard current account.