Jury service is an important civic duty, and we want to help jurors feel supported as they undertake this important job. The Government will keep under review all financial and accessibility support provided to jurors throughout their service.

The Government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK to pay for essential goods and services. It is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses.

The decision to accept or decline a form of payment is a commercial one and, as such, the Government’s position on cash acceptance is that it is primarily a matter for individual businesses. However, the Government recognises the importance of cash as a means of payment for essential services and to the wider economy, and therefore welcomes the work of the regulators to monitor cash acceptance. For example, research published by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2020 found that 98 per cent of small businesses surveyed would never turn away a customer if they needed to pay in cash.

The Government also recognises it is important that people can withdraw and deposit cash with ease, without which it is more difficult for cash to be used as a means of payment. The Financial Conduct Authority has recently assumed regulatory responsibility for protecting access to cash, and its new rules went live on 18 September. Under these rules, following a request from a local community or the closure of a cash access facility, firms that have been designated by the Government to be subject to the FCA’s regime are required to undertake an assessment of a community’s cash access needs and to put in place a new service if necessary.

The River Wye is one of our most important, iconic rivers. The level of pollution in the River Wye is unacceptable. That’s why this Government is introducing its first steps to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas.

Defra and its arm's length bodies, the Environment Agency and Natural England, continue to work with the Welsh Government, farmers and local partners on how we collectively can improve the river.

HMRC could not have considered the 2022-23 Communications and Digital Committee Report on Digital Exclusion when removing the postal address from tax code notices, as this change occurred over 5 years ago. In keeping with the HMRC Charter principles, the Department aims to balance digital initiatives with accessibility for those facing digital exclusion.

HMRC does not report on the median or upper decile wait times for telephone calls. However, HMRC publishes data on the average speed of answer for customer calls and the percentage of calls where the customer waited more than 10 minutes.

This information can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports#reporting-year-2023-to-2024

HMRC removed postal address from notices to encourage customers to use their digital services and interact with them online through their Personal Tax Account. Customers can submit queries electronically via HMRC’s iForm, which is handled by a dedicated team similar post correspondence.

For those unable to engage online, HMRC continues to provide support through telephone, including the Extra Support Service. This service is for customers who cannot contact HMRC due to health or personal issues. They can request phone, video, or in-person appointments when calling the helplines, and HMRC’s advisers will assess their circumstances to offer the best option for them.

More information can be found on the Extra Support Service at:

Get help from HMRC if you need extra support: Help you can get - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

A simple Government Gateway account can be created with only an email address. The customer is provided with a unique username (Government Gateway ID) and is asked to create a password. This account will not have identity checks associated to it, so can only be used to access Government services which do not require identity checking. Where a customer needs to access services requiring identity checking, additional Identity Verification steps are provided by Government Gateway, based on the identity information the customer has available to them. It is recognised that this can be difficult for some customers, particularly those with limited digital skills or limited documented identity sources.

All Government Gateway Services follow accessibility rules and guidelines, when building, improving, or changing our systems. As well as completing user research and user testing to understand the impact to our customers. This testing is completed with a wide range of different users to understand the impact on our customers.

A Disability Impact Assessment is always completed, working with our accessibility partners to ensure that all accessibility needs are considered in anything we do.

From Spring 2024 onwards, HMRC will begin to migrate new and some existing Government Gateway customers to GOV.UK One Login. This is the Governments new strategic authentication and identity checking system, operated by the Government Digital Service in Cabinet Office, which is making it easier and faster for users to prove and reuse their identity to access the government services they need. Improving accessibility is at the heart of GOV.UK One Login; it offers multiple ways for people to prove who they are, including an in-person option, and a customer support centre to help users with lower digital skills

Initially, only a small number of users will be able to access HMRC services through GOV.UK One Login, with volumes building over time. This measured approach is designed to ensure a high quality experience for users as we expand its roll out.

The government does not collect data on the types of payments that are accepted by businesses. Nonetheless, the government recognises that many people continue to transact in cash across the UK and has legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash.

The government considers that this legislation will support organisations, including local businesses, to continue accepting cash by ensuring that they have reasonable access to cash deposit facilities.

The Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) scheme is run by the Welsh Government and provides grants to fund (or part-fund) the installation costs of new broadband connections for homes and businesses in Wales. New connections through this scheme must deliver a step change in speed, with at least double current download speeds. However, it does not require all connections to be gigabit-capable.

The UK Government’s focus is on the delivery of Project Gigabit across the whole of the UK. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Over 75% of UK premises now have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection, which is a significant increase from 6% in January 2019.

We are delivering a series of procurements to provide subsidies to broadband suppliers to build gigabit-capable infrastructure to premises that will not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans alone. We have already awarded eight Project Gigabit contracts and launched a further 18 procurements across the country, making over £1.2 billion of funding available to cover up to 850,000 premises. The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme also provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband via local community broadband projects.

The HMRC Technical help desk received 508 complaints for the period March 2022 to March 2023.

Before a customer can interact with HMRC online services we need to be confident that the customer has the right to do so and that customer data is suitably protected. Core tools that help HMRC to gain this confidence are:

• Identity Verification (IV): What is the real world identity of the user accessing the online services
• Authentication: Confidence that a returning user is the same user who created the original account

HMRC currently use Government Gateway and HMRC Identity Service for online authentication and identity verification respectively but are planning to migrate to a new service titled Gov.UK One Login.

Gov.UK One Login is a cross-Government service being developed by Government Digital Service (GDS). The service aims to simplify access to all Government services by allowing a customer to prove their identity once and to then re-use that identity. This reduces the barrier created in requiring customers to prove their identity multiple times across different Government departments.

Accessibility and inclusivity are a priority for the programme and GDS have a plan of activity to improve inclusion over time. Examples include:

• A wider selection of data sources and options for a customer to use to prove their identity
• Offline channels available to those who cannot use the online offering

This intention to migrate to Gov.UK One Login as the cross-Government strategic solution means that HMRC will limit any activity to increase accessibility within Government Gateway and the internal HMRC identity verification services. This is due to the limited remaining window to gain benefit from improvements to those services and the need to avoid duplication of effort.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to PQ HL4981 on 6 February 2023.

The Code was laid in Parliament in February 2022, after being written in conjunction with key industry and consumer stakeholders and subject to public consultation.

In June the DLUHC received two legal challenges from some members of the private parking industry against the decisions in the Code to introduce new levels of parking charges and to ban additional fees that are often added when those charges are not paid. In response, we temporarily withdrew the Code to undertake an impact assessment and further consultation, ahead of taking new decisions on these elements of the Code, on which my department is to consult further. I will confirm consultation timelines in due course.

I appreciate that this delay is frustrating, but I can assure you that I am keen to raise standards while following robust process to ensure that we create a new system that works for all.

HM Treasury published the review of the UK’s AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism) regulatory and supervisory regime on 24 June 2022, which included a review assessing the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.^[1]

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-uks-amlcft-regulatory-and-supervisory-regime

I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to PQ 54476 on 12 October 2022.

HMRC does not hold information on the breakdown of General Betting Duty revenue by forms of betting such as greyhound racing, horseracing and football.

Revenue from General Betting Duty largely paid by bookmakers on all forms of betting was £586 million in 2019 to 2020, £595 million in 2020 to 2021 and £649 million in 2021 to 2022.

We have listened to the concerns of local government and have taken the difficult decision to delay the planned adult social care charging reforms from October 2023 to October 2025. The funding intended for implementation will be retained in local authority budgets to meet current pressures.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require firms in regulated sectors, including those regulated by the Gambling Commission, to obtain and verify certain information about their customers. Firms must have in place appropriate risk management systems and procedures to determine whether a customer is a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), or a family member or known close associate of a PEP. This is in line with the international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.

Original measures on PEPs were put into UK law via the transposition of the European Union’s fourth money laundering directive in June 2017, as was the legal requirement at the time. There was therefore no risk assessment undertaken specifically by the UK but the impact assessment from this process can be found here. The Financial Action Task Force is the international standard-setter in anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing, and its guidance on PEPs can be found here.

HM Treasury is currently undertaking a review of the 2017 Regulations. As part of this review, the proportionality of current requirements regarding domestic PEPs is being considered and balanced alongside the risks posed to the UK’s financial system, and our international obligations to mitigate these risks. The Review will be published this summer.

Lowering the cap from £86,000 to £35,000, while all other parameters remain unchanged, would double the estimated additional state spend for reform on older adults in 2027/28, when modelled in 2021/22 prices.