Bank of England will monitor cash acceptance on an ongoing basis following a Treasury Select Committee report published earlier this year, the government confirmed on Friday (July 12).
In its response to the Committee’s Report, the Government says that the Bank of England has committed to continuing to include an additional question on cash acceptance in its survey of consumers after it was introduced in January.
This will mean the Government has a public sector source for monitoring cash acceptance levels, rather than just relying on private sector data.
The acceptance of physical currency for goods and services in the UK is not currently specified in legislation. This means that UK businesses and organisations could choose not to accept cash with no legal duty to accommodate customers’ varying needs.
The Committee’s Report warned that a lack of action to tackle declining cash acceptance could lead to a two-tier society with the most vulnerable bearing the cost.
It highlighted how organisations not accepting cash disproportionately affected certain vulnerable groups, such as people with learning disabilities, domestic abuse victims and the elderly.
MPs called for improved monitoring to avoid creating a two-tier system where vulnerable groups become excluded from community spaces such as coffee shops, leisure centres, theatres and public transport.
The Government response agrees that the Financial Conduct Authority’s attempts to protect access to cash should also be used to understand the impact on small businesses’ willingness to accept cash. The Committee will monitor this.
When appearing before the Committee, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury stated, “we have no plans to regulate businesses, big or small, to compel them to accept cash”. However, the Committee’s Report argued that there may come a time in the future when it becomes necessary for the Treasury to mandate cash acceptance if those who rely on physical cash are not adequately supported.
Commenting on the announcement, Ron Delnevo, chair and spokesperson of Payment Choice Alliance, said, "The truth is that the Bank of England does not know - and therefore HM Treasury does not know - what percentage of businesses are now refusing to accept cash.
"Other Governments have got such data - and the around 5 per cent figure discovered by the Government of the Netherlands was enough to convince them to pass cash acceptance legislation in 2025.
"The fact that the Bank of England is not providing such data to the UK Government needs to be addressed immediately.
"The headline has, of course, resulted from the response of HM Treasury, made public this morning, to the Treasury Committees report on the acceptance of cash, issued in April 2025.
"The HM Treasury response is something of a masterpiece in contriving to ignore the crucial issues that matter to the majority of the British public, in favour of continuing to allow “cashless” to be gradually imposed on the same British public.
"You will not of course find “cashless” mentioned anywhere in 13 page response by HM Treasury, although there is one reference to “cash free”.
Delnevo further stressed that 40 million plus UK adults that have made clear in surveys that they "want to continue to have the option to use cash".
He however welcomed the HM Treasury response, in which it is stated that the government will continue to monitor and assess developments in other countries, including levels of cash usage.
"The Payment Choice Alliance has provided the UK Government - including to the Prime Monister directly this week - with clear evidence that every country neighbouring the UK has introduced legislative or constitutional reform to oblige businesses to accept cash.
"So the UK Government now has all the data it needs to “inform future policy” and can get on with passing cash acceptance legislation immediately."