Speeches by Blake.

“Listening to Members speaking to the amendments has caused me to reflect on the challenges at the heart of this debate. Does my hon. Friend agree that the amendments that are trying to unpick a holistic approach to fixing the foundations of our public finances entirely miss the point, first of the challenge that this G…”

“My questions are for the Post Office. In your own evidence, you recognise that so long as deposit services are easily available, businesses would continue accepting cash. You talked about how the framework ensures that businesses are not turning customers away. The British Independent Retailers Association said that mo…”

“This is a scenario that you may well knock down, but if you are selling magazines in an outlet and it is beginning to cost more to receive cash, in your sector would you accept the mandate, even though someone was buying something non-essential from the outlet?”

“You think there would be an adaptation?”

“Mr Borkett, you talked about the product: food, fuel and medicine.”

“An unintended consequence that I would worry about is that if you mandated the outlets and large supermarkets were not involved, there could be a real price differential. That is an unintended consequence that I would worry about. There is just another tension that I wanted to draw out. Mr Borkett is saying, “Do someth…”

“The Post Office is currently consulting on 110 Crown post offices closing, including nine in the cities of London and Westminster. Is cash at risk under this review?”

“You have talked about access to cash. In terms of acceptance of cash in businesses, we have established, in both your evidence and that of other small businesses, that the network is really important for that. How will cash acceptance, given that it is not a direct function, affect your decisions on those franchises?”

“Just so I understand, the acceptance of cash in local businesses will factor into your decision-making?”

“I wanted to put some questions to Mr Lowman. Your members both work within the network and rely on the network because of the nature of your members’ businesses. What more could be done to maintain post office services within your membership?”

“I agree with you that this is a really exciting opportunity for lots of small businesses in their communities, yet so many places are losing post offices and fearful of losing post offices. Why are more people not taking up this opportunity?”

“The comments you have made about the parcel machines, the level of competition for your members, whether they want to attract a post office service or they want the parcel machine, and the comparative income, are really interesting. Do you have any data that you could share?”

“There are a couple of tensions coming out of this panel in terms of the evidence that you are all bringing forward. The first that I would like to draw out is the contrast between mandating around outlets. Mr Lowman has talked about maybe doing the convenience stores, the Post Office, the pharmacies or particular areas…”

“There was less certainty from the sector on exactly how they would like to see regulation change to enable the secondary objective. We asked them exactly what regulations they would like to see change. They were less clear on that. Do you have clarity? You have talked about the rulebook in your letter. You have talked …”

“To help you work through that, is there anything more that you are expecting from the Chancellor that would help you to work through that range of opinions from the sector towards delivering on the secondary objective?”

“We had the sector in last week alongside consumers. I was struck by some of the unity between both the financial services sector and the consumers. Miles Celic said, “A successful market is based on trust and confidence. A critical element of that is consumers being confident in that market. So, I do not see it as weak…”

“I have been listening carefully to the right hon. Member. I came here today because of the harm that the botched Brexit deal has done to my communities, and because of my fear for what this Bill would do to those communities and the economies in the centre of London. He talks about the frustrating delays in implementin…”

“It is probably something we would like to come on to with other witnesses, because you could create some quite challenging environments for people to have to accept. I wanted to come back to you a bit on the scams. You referred to the APP changes, saying that they were a bit watered down. Was that the movement from the…”

“I wanted to come back to practical solutions and whether the current framework supports people with cash acceptance, particularly around energy bills. Do you have any evidence to share on cash payment for energy costs, and on whether people are forced into less advantageous tariffs? Is there any evidence on that? I am …”

“Is there a way to not be on a meter tariff and still pay in cash? If there is not, should there be?”