Slater unable to say if investment bank cash given to DRS firm will be returned

The minister in charge of Scotland’s deposit return scheme could not say if funding for it from the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) will be returned after the firm set up to run the recycling initiative called in the administrators.

Circularity Scotland received £9 million from the SNIB, but Lorna Slater said that as it is independent of the Scottish Government, ministers have no say in what will happen to the cash.

The Green circular economy minister also refused to say if SNP MSP and former rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing should be sanctioned by his party after he voted against her in a motion of no confidence at Holyrood on Tuesday.

The Scottish Greens are junior partners with the SNP in the Scottish Government as part of a deal which saw Ms Slater and fellow Green co-leader Patrick Harvie become ministers.

Mr Ewing, a vocal critic of deposit return, voted against Ms Slater in the key vote, insisting she “does not enjoy the confidence of business”.

Ms Slater dismissed the motion of no confidence – which she survived by 68 votes to 55 – as a “stunt by the Tories”.

Asked if Mr Ewing should face sanctions for going against his party and voting for the motion, the minister said simply: “Those are internal matters for another political party.”

Meanwhile, she told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme that Circularity Scotland’s decision to call in administrators was “absolutely a disaster” for its 66 employees.

The company had been set up to run Scotland’s deposit return scheme (DRS), a recycling initiative which imposes a refundable deposit on drinks sold in cans and bottles.

But the Scottish Government has delayed the scheme’s launch again, pushing it back from March 2024 to October 2025 at the earliest.

That came after the UK Government said the Scottish DRS could not include glass bottles, and that the deposit charged on cans and bottles must be the same in Scotland as in England – where the deposit level is still to be determined.

Ms Slater said: “The interference that we have had from the Conservative Government at Westminster to torpedo our scheme has had these negative consequences for Scottish businesses, for Scottish workers, and of course or flagship recycling scheme.

“The decision to stop the scheme was because the UK Government had put us in an impossible position.”

Asked what will now happen to the cash from the SNIB, Ms Slater said: “The Scottish National Investment Bank is independent of the Scottish Government, so that isn’t something we have any sort of say in.

“The investment decisions of the Scottish National Investment Bank are for them, they are independent of Government and they make their own decisions about that investment.”