Motions, questions and answers

The Scottish Government recognises that, despite declining cash usage across the country, any reduction in a local area’s ATMs will add to the uncertainty that a community faces on their ability to easily access cash and other banking services.
Whilst the Scottish Government hasn’t undertaken specific economic analysis of declining ATM’s in Lanarkshire, we have, with the limited powers available, delivered reliefs for ATM sites in Scotland to improve their commercial viability. This includes ensuring sites in rural areas are exempt from business rates where the building is used only for the ATM and, more widely, there is 100% rates relief available to ATM sites through the Small Business Bonus Scheme. Ultimately, however, the regulation of financial services is reserved to the UK Government and Scottish Ministers cannot intervene in the commercial decisions made by financial services firms to remove ATM’s.
We welcome the provisions around protecting access to cash in the Financial Services and Markets Bill introduced to the UK Parliament this year and we support industry initiatives, including the work of the Post Office and UK Finance’s Cash Action Group, that are aimed at improving access to cash across the country. Through the industries work, local communities can now apply to have their cash access independently reviewed and have new ATMs, or other services, installed should the current cash access be deemed poor. My officials will provide further detail to your office on how communities in your region can apply for these reviews.
The Scottish Government will continue to work constructively with the UK Government on ensuring access to cash is protected for those who need it in Scotland and, through our regular engagement with the financial services industry, we will urge banks and ATM providers to listen to, and address, the very real concerns customers have on accessing cash in their local communities.