Thank you for contacting me about access to cash and automated teller machines (ATMs). As a MP for a mainly rural area, I appreciate access to cash remains vital to the day-to-day lives of individuals in local communities.
At present, LINK, the scheme responsible for ATM provision in our country, provides a top-up subsidy for free-to-use ATMs in remote areas - the upper limit on these top-up subsidies rose from 30 pence to £2.75. This is expected to benefit up to 3,500 free-to-use ATMs across the country. I also know that as of September 2019, there were approximately 45,000 free-to-use cash machines across the UK, which represents a 13% increase from a decade ago.
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