Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each of the last 24 months for which data is available, (1) what was the total stock of ATMs and how many of those were free to use; (2) how many free to use ATMs have been closed; (3) how many of those closures were in areas of economic deprivation; and (4) how many were one mile or more from the nearest remaining free to use ATMs.

In 2015, the Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users. As a result, the PSR is closely monitoring developments within ATM provision, and has used its powers to ensure LINK meets its commitment on maintaining the broad geographical spread of free-to-use ATMs.

Data on the total stock of ATMs in the UK and how this has changed each year since 1998, including the split between free-to-use and pay-to-use ATMs, is publicly available on the LINK website. LINK also publish monthly data on their Financial Inclusion Programme, including on the numbers of free-to-use ATMs in deprived areas. In addition, data on the numbers of free-to-use ATMs 1 kilometre or further from the next nearest free-to-use ATM are provided each month in LINK’s publicly available ATM Footprint Report.