Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 March 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of all costs that it has incurred to date on all aspects of the Deposit Return Scheme.
The Scottish Government has spent £234,285.95 in setting up the Deposit Return Scheme since 2018. This includes the costs associated with consultation, publication of regulations and associated documents, evaluations, independent reviews and assurance.
In addition, as of January 2026, the costs incurred by the Scottish Government in the legal challenge from BIFFA Waste Services Ltd in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme is £447,092.
Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of their work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to provide an expenditure figure regarding how much the Scottish Government has spent on work by Civil Servants involved with the Deposit Return Scheme.