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<p>Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations
in the public and private sectors, including Lloyds Bank, as part of the process of
policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings
with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly
basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel.</p><p>Decisions
on the branch network are a commercial matter for the management team of a firm, and
the Government does not intervene in those decisions. However, the impact of closures
on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated, where possible.</p><p>Government
supports the industry’s Access to Banking Standard, launched in May 2017, which commits
banks to ensure personal and business customers are better informed about branch closures
and the reasons for them closing, along with the options they have locally to continue
to access banking services. The Access to Banking Standard is monitored and enforced
by the independent Lending Standards Board.</p><p>Government also supports the Post
Office’s banking framework agreement which enables 99% of personal and 95% of banks’
small business customers to conduct their everyday banking services at a Post Office
counter via its network of 11,500 branches. In March, in response to my request, the
Post Office and UK Finance committed to joint work to raise public awareness of these
important services so that more consumers can benefit from them.</p>
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