Legal concerns are raised over Scotland’s deposit return scheme, saying it could create an unlawful trade barrier with the rest of the UK.
The initiative is due to launch in August and is designed to boost recycling via a 20p deposit on single-use drinks bottles and cans. However, according to Scottish advocate, barrister, and King’s Counsel Aidan O’Neill KC, the Scottish government may have to delay it until the launch of a UK-wide scheme in 2025, BBC reported.
In a legal opinion, O’Neill has stated that there were “well-founded” concerns that the scheme would create a trade barrier between Scotland and England as it would require different prices to be charged for the same product on each side of the border.
He said expert economic evidence would be required to confirm this, but that it meant the scheme could contravene the UK Internal Market Act 2020.
O’Neill also warned that the regulations could not be enforced for single-use packaged drinks imported into Scotland from elsewhere in the UK, which would disadvantage Scottish producers.
He said this should “not come as any surprise to the Scottish government” as the Scottish Parliament was warned about such potential legal difficulties in a 2020 briefing paper by a University of Cambridge law professor, BBC stated in a report.
He made the remarks in advice sought from a group of distillers.
Under the initiative every drinks producer based in Scotland will have to add 20p to products to be sold in the country in a single-use container. It will be charged to the retailer who will in turn bill the consumer.
People need to return empty bottles or cans to a reverse vending machine in a supermarket, retail stores or designated return point. A total of 17,000 return points have to be set up across Scotland
Scotland’s upcoming DRS is set to go live on Aug 16 though it has been getting a mixed response with concerns also being raised by smaller firms.
“We know we need to get to Net Zero. We know businesses need to make changes. But the Deposit Return Scheme is just too complicated for smaller firms. They’re not listening to smaller business. They’re listening to bigger business,” Fiona MacEachern, co-founder of Loch Lomond Brewery, told BBC Scotland.
“This is one of the most difficult schemes of its type in the world, which makes it one of the most expensive and most difficult to negotiate. We still don’t have all the answers we need to complete everything. It’s not a simple process.”
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