Chamber and committees

No. As a result of the UK Government’s actions and intervention at the 11th hour, we have been left with no other option than to reset the timescale of DRS and delay the launch until October 2025 at the earliest, when the UK Government aims to launch its own scheme. This means that the Action Plan that was developed and which was shared with the Net Zero Energy and Transport Committee on 28 June is now obsolete and therefore an Assurance of Action plan is unnecessary.

The Scottish Government does not hold a record of a formal notification of a material change in circumstances in relation to this matter, however as mentioned previously in my response to S6W-18498, the letter and anticipated schedule to which the member refers was in the context of a scheme launch date of July 2022.

Following an independent Gateway Review in June 2021, the Scottish Government confirmed that it would conduct a review of that go live date, with input from Circularity Scotland, industry and independent advice. Issues relating to the design and delivery of the scheme were taken in to account during the review process.

As a result of that review, the Scottish Parliament voted to move the launch date of DRS from July 2022 to August 2023. This decision made the previous request for information irrelevant due to the change in the launch date for the scheme.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), adopted and published on 13 February 2023, sets out that development proposals will be sited and designed to minimise lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible.

All national developments designated in NPF4 were subject to an assessment, undertaken by independent consultants, of the likely impact of each proposed national development’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions on achieving national greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.

The Scottish Government has engaged with Zero Waste Scotland and leading experts on whole life emission reporting and the topic will be considered further in the development of Scotland’s next Climate Change Plan.

Where development proposals are likely to generate waste when operational, including residential, commercial, and industrial properties, NPF4 policy 12c) sets out that proposals will set out how much waste is expected to be generated and how it will be managed.

The Scottish Government, along with the other UK administrations, is carefully considering proposals to reduce the environmental impacts of e-cigarettes as part of the consultation on reforms to the WEEE regulations which will be published later this year.

Neither Scottish Government nor Zero Waste Scotland retain the data or own the research undertaken by WRAP. Queries on the data and publication status should be directed to WRAP.

The figure from WRAP was used to engage stakeholders through the Circular Economy Route Map consultation. The data referred to was also previously cited in the UK wide consultation on extended producer responsibility for packaging, which closed on 4 June 2021.

Zero Waste Scotland subsequently published detailed research on commercial waste zoning ( https://cdn.zerowastescotland.org.uk/managed-downloads/mf-l4c68iko-1686671978d ).

Adoption of a kitemark standard for the commercial waste sector is not currently being pursued by Scottish Government.

The 2012 Waste (Scotland) regulations along with the existing Recycling Charter and its associated Code of Practice act as the Scottish standard of good service provision for household waste collections.

The information to be contained in an application for scheme administrator approval is set out in Schedule 2 of the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 as passed by the Scottish Parliament. The design and operational detail of the scheme is a matter for the scheme administrator. Following the March 2023 gateway review, scoping work was commenced to finalise a Target Operating Model. This work has been paused due to the UK Government’s 11th hour intervention which undermined Scotland’s deposit return scheme.

The Scottish Government has no current plans do so. Following the UK Government’s 11th hour intervention which undermined Scotland’s deposit return scheme, the establishment of any future scheme administrator will be considered in due course.

The SEFARI (Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutions) gateway, who are administering the Specialist Advisory Group on waste emissions on behalf of the Scottish Government, received a number of notes of interest from waste specialists to join the Specialist Advisory Group. However, as of the date of this response, SEFARI have not yet issued contracts for the specialists on the group. We are therefore not able to provide details on the composition of the Specialist Advisory Group until these contracts have been finalised.

Circular Economy Business Support (CEBS) offers a range of support to small and medium-sized enterprises depending on the needs of each business. This includes, but is not limited to, technical and market support, developing growth strategies, building business cases, and assessing the market feasibility of novel products.

Over the last 5 years CEBS has supported 16 Scottish businesses to develop circular textile models. The following table provides a summary;