Ahead of the Senedd debate on the Petitions Committee report, “A cashless society?”, we’re setting out some relevant background information as well as highlighting our previous articles.
The Committee’s report stems from a petition by Mencap Cymru calling for the Welsh Government to take action to ensure adults with learning disabilities and other vulnerable adults can continue to pay for goods and services with cash.
The Welsh Government responded to the Petitions Committee’s report in July, rejecting one recommendation outright and accepting, in full or in part, the remaining four.
The Welsh Government ‘accepted in part’ the Committee’s recommendation that it “should ensure access to community-based banking facilities both to support businesses to continue to access and deposit cash and to support the banking needs of people with learning disabilities”.
Responding to this recommendation the Welsh Government noted that it “supports the continued roll-out of shared banking hubs as a response to the loss of physical banking services in many Welsh communities”.
Cash Access UK provides details of the banking hubs in Wales on its website. Of the 11 listed in Wales, 6 are currently open (and 2 of the 6 are listed as 'temporary').
However, the Welsh Government’s response did not refer to its Programme for Government commitment to “support the creation of a Community Bank for Wales”.
Our article from 2019 sets out the initial scale of ambition of Banc Cambria, the organisation that the Welsh Government was supporting to set up a community bank. To date no community bank has been established.
In May, the Welsh Government told the Welsh Affairs Committee that it “continues to engage with potential delivery organisations to explore possible options for Community bank delivery”.
The Welsh Government ‘accepted in part’ the Committee’s recommendation that it should “work in partnership with people with learning disabilities, learning disability organisations, older people’s organisations, care and support organisations, the public and third sector and the business community to develop and deliver a campaign to educate and improve understanding of how a cashless society will exclude some people”.
Responding to this recommendation the Welsh Government noted that it “actively works with a wide range of third sector and voluntary organisations to ensure the rights of the most vulnerable are protected – this includes their rights to access financial services.”.
The Welsh Government said the Disability Rights Taskforce has completed its meetings and will now move on to consideration of the recommendations it co-produced.
In September, the Co-Chair of the Disability Rights Taskforce told the Equality and Social Justice Committee there were “delays with the taskforce more generally”.
For more information on bank closures in Wales over the years, see our article from 2021.
In Brief by Ben Stokes and Claire Thomas, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament
