An article relating to this blog post on Finextra:
Following cheques tussle, MPs bid to rein in Payments Council
In the wake of a battle over the future of cheques, the UK's Treasury select committee has published a report recommending a range of measures designed to strip the industry-dominated Payments Council...
See article
But we voted for their unbalanced and uninformed contributions to debate.
1 in 200 cheques bounces - these don't appear on the cheque fraud statistics because they may not have been forged or "converted". They may just be written by people or companies with insufficient funds. This can be an offence but it is rarely prosecuted.
The disruption to trade is out of all proportion to their convenience. It would be far better to have a comprehensively available electronic payments system.
This will not now happen because politicians have started meddling. 2018 was set as a date far enough away to allow solutions to come forward in the knowledge that there was a market to develop with some certainty.
I also note that the politicians want to force banks to allow their customers to have chequebooks. At least we are not going to be forced to accept them.