HM Treasury has not made an analysis of the Government departments and agencies that apply a surcharge when customers make payments by credit card.

However, from January 2018 the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) introduces a ban on surcharging which means that retailers will no longer be able to charge consumers to use payment instruments for which interchange fees are regulated, which includes the majority of consumer debit and credit cards.

Merchants currently pay a merchant service charge to process all card transactions. Part of this covers the fees that a merchant acquirer can be charged by a card issuing bank for processing transactions known as interchange fees. The Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), which came into force in December 2015, caps the fees that could be passed on to consumers from merchants in the form of higher prices at 0.2% and 0.3% for debit and credit cards respectively.

HM Treasury has not made an analysis of the Government departments and agencies that apply a surcharge when customers make payments by credit card.

However, from January 2018 the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) introduces a ban on surcharging which means that retailers will no longer be able to charge consumers to use payment instruments for which interchange fees are regulated, which includes the majority of consumer debit and credit cards.

Merchants currently pay a merchant service charge to process all card transactions. Part of this covers the fees that a merchant acquirer can be charged by a card issuing bank for processing transactions known as interchange fees. The Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), which came into force in December 2015, caps the fees that could be passed on to consumers from merchants in the form of higher prices at 0.2% and 0.3% for debit and credit cards respectively.

Rules governing ATM surcharging are currently set by the LINK scheme, a commercial arrangement that manages the network that connects the UK’s ATMs.

LINK statistics show that the number of free-to-use ATMs is at an all-time high of over 53,000 and over 98% of all ATM cash withdrawals by UK cardholders in the UK are made free of charge.

LINK runs a financial inclusion programme which subsidises free to use ATMs in areas without existing access. LINK has identified 1,694 rural and/or deprived ‘target’ areas, and 87% of these areas are now served by 916 subsidised cashpoints, up from 171 in 2007.

Information on the Immigration Health Surcharge can be found in the within the published National Audit Office annual figures, dated 28 October 2016.

https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Recovering-the-cost-of-NHS-treatment-for-overseas-visitors.pdf

The immigration health surcharge aims to ensure that temporary, non-EEA migrants make a fair contribution to the cost of healthcare in the UK, in line with their immigration status. Temporary, non-EEA migrants have not built up the long-term relationship and contribution to the UK that a permanent resident has built up, and will build up, over the course of their lifetime. It is, therefore, the migrant’s immigration status that determines whether or not they pay the surcharge, not their tax or national insurance contributions.

The Government recognises that migrants who pay the surcharge may contribute to the economy in a number of ways, including by paying income tax and national insurance and this contribution is reflected in the surcharge levels, which are set below the average per capita cost to the NHS of treating non-EEA temporary migrants.

The immigration health surcharge, set at £200 a year for temporary migrants and £150 a year for students and youth mobility scheme visa applicants, is lower than the estimated per capita cost to the NHS of providing treatment to temporary migrants.

It is a migrant’s immigration status that determines whether they pay the surcharge. Temporary migrants have not built up the long-term relationship and contribution to the UK that a permanent resident has built up, and will build up, over the course of their lifetime. The Government does recognise, however, that temporary migrants may contribute to the economy in a number of ways, including by paying income tax and national insurance and this contribution is reflected in the surcharge levels stated above, which are designed to represent a fair contribution towards the cost of providing the full range of NHS services available to surcharge payers.

There is no evidence to suggest that there has been a reduction in visa applications as a result of the introduction of the Immigration Health Surcharge.

A summary of Immigration Health Surcharge income collected during 2015-16 will be published shortly in the Home Office annual report and accounts.

The Sentencing Council has launched a new fines calculator, which is freely available on its website to assist magistrates when imposing fines. This takes account of the changes to the surcharge introduced on 8 April and enables calculations for multiple fines and rounding where appropriate. The calculator is a tool to assist sentencers and is not intended to replace the role of the court in determining the appropriate sentence in line with any relevant sentencing guidelines. Courts can only depart from sentencing guidelines if it is in the interests of justice to do so.