Parliament to debate acceptance of cash

On Monday 20 March, Parliament will debate petitions relating to the acceptance of cash. The session will be lead by Martyn Day MP.

One petition, which has more than 33,000 signatures, seeks to ‘make it unlawful for shops to refuse cash payments’. Another petition, which has more than 24,000 signatures, seeks to ‘require all businesses and public services to accept cash payments’.

In responses to both petitions, the Government stated that it does not plan to mandate cash acceptance, and that businesses are able to choose the forms of payment they accept. The latter response, given on 22 September 2022, also noted that the Government had introduced legislation to support access to cash.