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I refer the member to Scottish Government’s publication on 28 February 2023 of the timeline and process for securing an Internal Market Act exclusion for the Deposit Return Scheme:

This is clear that Scottish Government sought an exclusion from the Internal Market Act for Scotland’s DRS under the Resources and Waste common framework since July 2021.

When the UK Government unilaterally decided in March 2022 to agree only a narrow exclusion for single-use plastics under the Common Framework, Scottish and Welsh Ministers made clear their concerns on impacts on other policy developments. I refer the member to the published communiqué from the 21 March 2022 meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs .

Circularity Scotland are a private limited company established to deliver DRS on behalf of drinks producers. They do not report to the Scottish Government. However officials and I have met regularly with Circularity Scotland as part of preparations for the DRS scheme

The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 require a scheme administrator to report to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), on behalf of producers, as required, (a) the number of scheme articles first made available by that producer to be marketed, offered for sale or sold for the purposes of its retail sale in Scotland, (b) whether the scheme packaging in which those scheme articles were contained or sold was made wholly or mainly from PET plastic, glass, steel or aluminium, (c) the number of items of scheme packaging returned to the producer by wholesalers and retailers, (d) the number of items of scheme packaging collected by the producer from each return point operator, retailer providing a takeback service and hospitality retailer. A scheme administrator must also provide any information requested by the Scottish Ministers or SEPA for the purposes of monitoring compliance with the requirements in regulations 10(1) and 11(1) that relate to producer obligations.

Circularity Scotland also play a key role in the system wide governance framework and are represented in both the Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group and the Executive Oversight Group.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme has been based on successful schemes across Europe. The Minister has been thoroughly briefed by Zero Waste Scotland on relevant research findings throughout the policy’s development.

As stated in question S6W 18000 on 31 May 2023, research was undertaken by Zero Waste Scotland, who designed the scheme, and met with a range of international scheme administrators and operators, including those from Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Iceland, Denmark and Finland.

This research and briefing has meant that the minister has been fully appraised of the main characteristics of schemes across Europe and has not therefore personally travelled to the countries listed.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

As Circularity Scotland (CSL) is a private company, the Scottish government does not have a record of all their meetings and engagements. However, as an industry led company, CSL has regular engagement with its members and businesses involved with DRS. CSL has also attended many stakeholder meetings with the Scottish Government, including the system wide assurance group, sector engagement with retail, hospitality and producer bodies, and most recently on 7 June with the Minister, First Minister and more than 80 business representatives.

The Scottish Government use SEPA’s ‘Waste from All Sources’ data as a baseline for recycling rates in Scotland.

This includes statistical measures to support targets specified in Scottish waste policies. Those most relevant to recycling are:

• Recycled construction and demolition waste
• Recycled waste from all sources

The most recent Scottish ‘Waste from All Sources’ data is from 2021 and was published in March this year.

The Scottish Government has always been clear that we will work closely with the UK and devolved Governments to maximise interoperability of the schemes, while acknowledging that waste and recycling policy is fully devolved.

In order to do this, the UK Government must provide clarity on its own deposit return scheme by introducing regulations for its scheme as soon as possible.

I wrote to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Defra’s Minister for Environmental Quality and Resilience on 6 June setting out that I was keen to work collaboratively with other administrations across the UK to push forward work on issues around interoperability, while ensuring that the wishes and competence of the Scottish Parliament are respected.

The membership of the Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group has representation from the following

Circularity Scotland Limited

SEPA

Zero Waste Scotland

Scottish Hospitality Group

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association

The British Beer and Pub Association

SIBA

British Soft Drinks Association

Scottish Wholesale Association

UK Hospitality

Scottish Retail Consortium

Scottish Grocers’ Federation

COSLA

Scotch Whisky Association

These groups had representatives from the organisations themselves and also some members of the organisations also attended.

I am joined by senior SG Officials from the Deposit Return Scheme Division.

The Implementation Advisory Group (IAG) was formed when Zero Waste Scotland was developing DRS, carrying out associated impact assessments and working with Scottish Government to develop and lay the original DRS regulations. It met during 2019 and 2020 and was then disbanded once the regulations were laid as ‘ownership’ of the scheme was then passed on to the Scheme Administrator.

A suite of impact assessments has been updated to reflect the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Amendment Regulations 2023, which changed the implementation date of the scheme to 1 March 2024, alongside a number of simplification measures.

Updated versions of the Islands Communities Impact Assessment, Fairer Scotland Impact Assessment and Equalities Impact Assessments will be published shortly, alongside a supplementary analysis to the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment in light of the amendments laid in May

These changes pre-date my statement to Parliament on 7 June 2023 on the reset of date to 2025 as a result of conditions set by the UK Government very late in the process and I will be setting out detailed proposals for Parliament as appropriate.

In line with the DRS governance structure, officials meet regularly with a range of stakeholders from multiple sectors to discuss operational issues including barcodes for DRS articles.

There are no barcode requirements with Scotland’s DRS Regulations. Producers must provide SEPA with relevant information that supports the identification of scheme articles, which may include barcodes.

Decisions over barcodes rest with drinks producers and the scheme administrator, and will depend on a range of factors.