Firms ‘had rug pulled out’ by Scottish Government over deposit scheme, MPs told
Businesses in Scotland have had the “rug pulled out under their feet” by the Scottish Government’s handling of its proposed deposit return scheme, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt has said.
Scotland’s deposit return scheme has suffered a number of delays and is now not due to commence until at least October 2025 to coincide with a similar initiative from Westminster.
Holyrood requires an exemption to the Internal Market Act in order to implement its version of the scheme, but ministers in London want the four nations’ deposit return schemes to be aligned and objected to the Scottish scheme including glass bottles.
SNP Commons leader Deidre Brock criticised the Government during a session of questions about House business in the Commons.
She said: “If the UK Government is prepared to intervene on a packaging recycling scheme, what confidence can we have that any of our Parliament’s policies won’t be struck down in a similar way?”
She added: “Why were so many MSPs and MPs from her party very enthusiastic about glass being included in (deposit return) schemes previously? Commitments to it even being included in the manifesto she stood on?”
Ms Mordaunt responded: “The reason why the Secretary of State for Scotland (Alister Jack) is having these discussions with the Scottish Government is that we are standing up for, firstly, the interests of Scottish business, which the SNP are not, and secondly because the scheme devised in Scotland is actually going to reduce recycling rates.”
She added: “The delay to this scheme has been caused by the Scottish Government not engaging on a UK-wide scheme that would need to be devised because of the UK internal market.
“She only has to go and listen to businesses in her constituency to understand their concerns around this scheme, also their calls for compensation from the Scottish Government because of how poorly this has been done, the investments they have had to make, only to have the rug pulled out under their feet.”