Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the barriers to entry and ensure innovation in the contactless payment industry.

The Government is committed to supporting competition and innovation in the payments sector, including contactless payments.

The National Payments Vision sets out the Government’s ambition for a trusted, world-leading payments ecosystem, delivered on next-generation technology, where consumers and businesses have a choice of payment methods to meet their needs.

The Government is taking steps to implement this vision. This includes work to modernise payment services regulation to deliver a clear, predictable and proportionate framework that supports competition and innovation, including by adapting regulation to new developments in payments.