Cabinet Secretary, the figures I have are that 152 banks have closed between 2011 and 2016, with 20 more to close in 2018—there are yet another two in my constituency, in Treforest and Talbot Green. The most worrying aspect to this is the total lack of any social or community responsibility from the banks, even in terms of the most basic consultation with those particular communities. I've met consistently with banks every time a closure has been announced. These are corporate decisions that are taken—there is no engagement, no consultation. When you ask about other banks, because one bank will say, 'Well, we're closing Pontyclun because you can now use Talbot Green', the next one is that Talbot Green closes, and they say, 'Ah, well, you can now use Treforest', and then they close Treforest. So, every time we discuss these matters with the banks, not only have they broken all of the promises they made—they did at one stage have an agreement that there would be no bank that would be the last bank, they agreed it with the trade unions, and that's been broken. It seems to me that there is a total contempt, almost, for the concept of customer service in favour of product sales from centralised and online banking.

What I'd ask for—. I welcome what you say about the Post Office and credit unions, because it seems to me that those are things that we have to look at, but it does seem to me that we do have to press—I understand that this is undoubtedly a UK Government matter—for a statutory basis to consultation with banking services. Banks are all too happy to take public money when they get into a mess and they require support from public funds. It seems to me that it is not unreasonable, as the Labour opposition in Westminster has asked for, for there to be a statutory obligation on banks to provide a public service and at least to have a meaningful statutory consultation process.