Speeches by Dean.

“At risk of labouring the point, I just want to try to get absolute clarity on some of the answers. You keep saying that we are not planning for a cashless society. I accept that. Some of these vulnerable groups are saying that this is the point: that there is no plan for a potential cashless society. It is happening sl…”

“Of course, but things change rapidly. We have seen things change rapidly in just the last few years. The point of this inquiry is to speculate about what a cashless society would look like. If you speculate that we do arrive in a cashless society, would there be any impact assessment made on which groups would be parti…”

“That is fine. Five years ago, I would not have imagined using my phone for everything, but I do that as well, so things can happen very quickly. Ms McEvoy spoke a little bit about the evidence we heard from victims of economic abuse, and they talked about space to act and how cash increases their space to act. They are…”

“I fear that the Government’s drive for growth has meant that they have become fearful of the tough regulation that my hon. Friend suggests. They see it only as an impediment, instead of the basis for a stable economy. Does he agree that weak regulation is not only bad for consumers and for the environment, but also for…”

“Just to push on that a bit further, will there be any safeguards or regulations in place to ensure that, when that money is released, it will be used for investment and will not ultimately just be extracted to shareholders?”

“I appreciate that this point is going to be made multiple times and the convenience stores said 99% of them take cash, but the point of this inquiry is to anticipate what might happen in the future.”

“I am going to be picking up on Ms McEvoy’s comments a bit more. Do you know if the Government have done any risk assessment to date of some of the groups that we have been talking about that might be prevented from accessing essential goods or services if we were to arrive in a cashless society? Have any assessments be…”

“I have given you specific examples of where acceptance of cash has declined. You cannot get on some trains. You cannot spend money on some trains. You cannot pay for kids’ meals at schools. These are things that are already happening; it is not an imaginary future. How do you want to address that problem? Is it just by…”

“That is quite a clear answer—that you do not think defining it by essential goods and services would be useful because it would be too difficult to define. But you have said, on the flip side, that you do not intend to impose any regulation at all. I know that you do not anticipate this is going to happen soon, but jus…”

“I appreciate all the potential solutions you are putting forward. The role I played in the focus group last week was to try to put each one of those forward, because I anticipated the industry would always say, “Look, these are mere digital or tech hurdles to be overcome. We can change policy. We can change process. Al…”

“The power vested in large corporations is greater than ever. Tech giants are exerting monopolistic power over the market, so I am becoming exasperated with the Government’s Thatcherite-like attitude towards deregulation. Do the Government understand the risks involved in going for short-term boosts to growth over long-…”

“The Labour manifesto committed to replacing the business rates system. However, last week at the Treasury Committee, the Minister seemed to rule out the kind of comprehensive reform that the Liberal Democrats and others have been campaigning for, and indicated that there might only be a tinkering around the edges of ra…”

“11. What steps she is taking through the tax system to support SMEs.”

“I am going to move on to business rates. I am trying to get to the bottom of what might be a semantic issue, but you will be able to clarify that for me. The Labour manifesto talked about replacing business rates and then the transformation paper talks more about reform. Has there been a change since you have got into …”

“There are three broad areas that you seek to address. Just as a smaller point, first of all, if you can clarify, it did say the consultation is going to run until March. Is that still accurate? Is the progress with the consultation going well? Do you still plan to finish by March?”

“Then, consequently, when would you expect to come back with what your proposal would be?”

“Is that this year?”

“It is so that we can see the potential of what the shift would do.”

“The other point speaks to Dame Harriett Baldwin’s points about how many people will be newly interacting with HMRC. We mentioned, potentially, pensioners, but I believe that there might also be an increase in people who have child benefit and want to do tax returns. Could we get the full breakdown of who we anticipate …”

“I am not sure that I agree with that. I hear from businesses sometimes that they think that this system is slightly archaic and might be targeting the wrong people, but let us go into another element of it, which is around the valuations and the revaluations. Would it be an ambition of Government to get to a place wher…”