Chamber and committees

The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group was established as part of the refreshed system wide governance for the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland (DRS) for the implementation stage of the programme. The function of this group is:

• To provide collective strategic assurance of successful DRS implementation.
• To hold all stakeholders mutually accountable for requisite actions.
• To build consensus on issues where there is conflict in stakeholders’ positions.

? To drive down the number of outstanding operational issues.

? To manage resolution issues escalated to the Group.

The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group first met on 22 May 2023. The meeting was held virtually on MS Teams.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18432 on 14 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18425 on 14 June 2023. I confirm there was no crossover with the Implementation Assurance Group and Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group. The Implementation Assurance Group was disbanded in 2020 with the Ministerial Strategy Assurance Group forming in May 2023.

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

The Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland consulted several organisations including Disability Equality Scotland and Inclusion Scotland in the process of assessing the potential impacts of the Deposit Return Scheme. This was accounted for in the Final Equality Impact Assessment, published in March 2020 and available at A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland : Final Equality Impact Assessment (www.gov.scot).

Circularity Scotland are a private limited company, Scottish Government do not hold records of Circularity Scotland and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs discussions regarding DRS. However, we are aware that Circularity Scotland have written directly to Defra on a number of occasions regarding the Deposit Return Scheme.

Officials met with representatives from British Glass on 2 May to discuss the Deposit Return Scheme. Officials were clear in that meeting that Ministers strongly believe in the inclusion of glass in the DRS, due to the environmental and economic benefits this would bring and in line with the shared understanding across the UK at the time the Scottish regulations were approved. Officials will continue to engage with British Glass at appropriate times in the future, in line with wider stakeholder engagement.

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, many of whom had schemes that include glass, such as Estonia, 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 https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to my statement of 7 June 2023 which has been published on the Scottish Parliament website. The process for considering an exclusion for Scotland’s DRS from the Internal Market Act led to the unilateral UK Government decision on 26 May not to agree a full exclusion by removing glass and imposing uncertain conditions on interoperability. This decision left the Scottish Government with no other option than to delay launch until October 2025 at the earliest, according to UK Government aspirations for their scheme. We regularly publish information and will consider any updated publication in light of these further substantive developments. UK Government has not challenged the accuracy of our published timeline.

I refer the member to my statement of 7 June 2023 which has been published on the Scottish Parliament website . The process for considering an exclusion for Scotland’s DRS from the Internal Market Act led to the unilateral UK Government decision on 26 May not to agree a full exclusion by removing glass and imposing uncertain conditions on interoperability. This decision left the Scottish Government with no other option than to delay launch until October 2025 at the earliest, according to UK Government aspirations for their scheme.

The end to end testing plans will have to be adjusted due to these developments. However prior to this announcement, as part of CSL Programme Delivery activity, end to end testing was planned to be carried out to ensure successful completion of agreed outcomes.