UK Government blocked bottle return scheme to give SNP a ‘black eye’, court told

A UK Government minister blocked a Scottish deposit return scheme (DRS) in order to give the SNP a “black eye”, a court has been told.

Scotland’s former circular economy minister Lorna Slater accused former Scottish secretary Alister Jack of acting in “bad faith” when he refused to grant an exclusion for glass bottles under the internal market act (IMA).

This decision led to the Scottish Government changing its plans for the scheme in 2023.

A UK-wide DRS is planned but it is not expected to begin before 2027.

Biffa Waste Services is suing the Scottish Government at the Court of Session, seeking £51.4 million in reparations over the decision to delay the DRS.

Giving evidence to the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Tuesday, Ms Slater said Lord Jack had “single-handedly undermined” the scheme using what was effectively a ministerial veto.

The Scottish Greens MSP told the court: “Alister Jack saw a political opportunity – and relations between the governments were not good – to give the SNP a black eye and to undermine my credibility, because he could.

“He had effective power of veto to the Scottish DRS.”

Biffa’s lawyer Roddy Dunlop KC said these were “serious allegations” and pressed her on how the decision not to grant an exclusion for glass had shown “bad faith”.

She responded that the UK Government had known of Scotland’s plans for a DRS with glass for some time, but had decided not to grant the exclusion at the “11th hour”.

She also said no evidence had been provided to support the decision.

“Companies across Scotland (had) invested millions in a DRS scheme with glass”, she said.

“For the UK Government to come to us at the 11th hour and say you cannot have glass, I say that’s in bad faith.”

The former Scottish Greens co-leader also said her Government had been set an “impossible” condition in relation to the deposit level to be applied to containers covered by the scheme.

She said that in negotiations over the exclusion in early 2023, the UK Government had said the level in the Scottish scheme needed to match that of the UK scheme.

However, she pointed out the UK level had not been set yet, so it was not possible to comply with this requirement.

“The UK Government were setting a condition on the Scottish Government that the Scottish Government could not possibly meet,” she said.

She also acknowledged the DRS had been a “complex” scheme that faced a number of risks and challenges – including a number of “existential” issues like VAT, labelling and securing the buy-in of producers, as well as the need for an IMA exclusion.

However she insisted none of these had been “insurmountable”, and that the IMA issue could have been resolved if the UK Government had been a “good colleague” and collaborated on delivering something all four UK nations were looking at bringing in.

Giving evidence on Friday, Lord Jack had dismissed the suggestion his concerns about the scheme had been politically motivated, insisting it was “beholden” to him as Scottish secretary to “ensure our businesses and our consumers were protected”.

The hearing continues.