GREEN GIGGLES AS DEPOSIT RETURN SCHEME IMPLODES
Controversial deposit-return scheme "illegal" in current form, Lorna Slater deploys klaxon stats and Green MSP Mark Ruskell thinks its all quite funny
Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme claims to be designed to make it easy for us all to do the right thing. The idea is a simple one, people pay a small deposit of 20p when they buy a drink in a single-use container and then get the deposit back when they return the empty bottle or can. The only problem is Lorna Slater and the Scottish Government have managed to turn the policy into a total disaster zone amid fears it’s illegal with producers en masse refusing to participate.
DRS “illegal”
According to Innis & Gunn founder and master brewer Dougal Sharp, the Deposit-return scheme is probably illegal. Mr Sharp has been warning about the problems the scheme faces for months now, but had been ignored by Ms Slater.
In response to accusations the DRS was unworkable and probably illegal she insisted the contrary was the case. In a letter for MSPs Ms Lorna insisted as recently as February 9, 2023 that the DRS was entirely within Holyrood competency and there were no legal problems
“The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations were approved by the Scottish Parliament in 2020 and are wholly within devolved competence.”
But it turns out Ms Slater was completely wrong and Mr Sharp entirely correct. The Scottish Government Minister has now reverse-ferreted on the central issue of legality. The Green minister leading the scheme has now admitted that an opt-out from the UK Internal Market Act (UKIMA) is needed for the scheme to proceed. Apparently the Scottish Government’s DRS is “wholly within devolved competence” but requires UK a Government opt-out from the UKIMA. Go figure how Ms Slater is squaring that circle in her head.
Also worth noting is that less than a month ago Ms Slater had insisted “the formal process for excluding the deposit return scheme regulations from the Internal Market Act is well underway”. But according to the Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Jack that isn’t true.
Mr Jack informed Westminster on February 22
“We have not been asked for an exemption for this under the rules of the UK Internal Market Act 2020 (UKIM) by the Scottish Government – no request for an exemption has come”
So on February 9 Ms Slater was telling MSPs in Edinburgh “formal process for excluding the deposit return scheme regulations from the Internal Market Act is well underway”, but on February 22 Mr Jack told MPs in London no request for an opt-out had been received from the Scottish Government.
It is not possible for Mr Jack and Ms Slater to have both been telling the truth at the same time. Either the request for an opt-out was needed and sent or it wasn’t.
Lorna Slater has since came out swinging, insisting Mr Jack lied to parliament and should be sacked. If he did mislead the chamber, then surely he ought to be removed from post immediately. However it’s hard not to smell a rat here. After all, the DRS is a disaster zone, and has been heading for the rocks for a while. It’s hard to avoid the suspicion that the Scottish Government is trying to pass the buck for a policy disaster onto Westminster. This all reeks of that tried and true SNP/Green method of avoiding responsibility by blaming Westminster.
Klaxon statistics
As if the very legality of the DRS isn’t clear weren’t bad enough, Ms Slater has been resorting to questionable statistics to sell the policy.
Apparently the DRS rollout isn’t an epic disaster at all, in fact “664 drink producers representing over 90% of the total volume of drinks containers sold in Scotland each year have completed registration with Circularity Scotland for Scotland’s deposit-return scheme”.
Wait a minute…
Judging from what Ms Slater just told us, we could be forgiven for thinking that registration with the deposit return scheme (DRS) is a success. But the problem is, the statistic she's using leaves out an incredibly important piece of context
According to Circularity Scotland's own website they were anticipating 4,500 producers registering.
So if we believe Ms Slater, as of 1st March (the deadline for registering for the DRS), only 664 actually have. What the Scottish Government minister feels disinclined to confess is that a pathetic 14.75 per cent of producers actually registered.
This rather changes things.
It's stretching credulity for Ms Slater to continue insisting producers have "confidence in the scheme and agreement". The elephant sized piece of reality in the room is that a mere 14.5% of producers in Scotland "have confidence in the scheme and agreement".
I note Ms Slater's press team have been emailing journalists in an attempt to double down…
Given Ms Slater was peddling the klaxon statistic in Holyrood raises an interesting point: did Ms Slater violate the ministerial code?
I’ll let you judge for yourselves.
No amount of lipstick on this particular pig of a policy can disguise the fact it’s a bill of goods. The DRS is a pig-in-a-poke, and one sinking faster than a ship without a hull. Put simply, producers have clearly got the same concerns as Mr Sharp of Innis & Gunn and are refusing to sign-up to the probably illegal Scottish Government scheme. Less than 15 per cent of them have even bothered to participate, and Ms Slater’s klaxon statistical dance isn’t disguising reality.
Giggling Greens
Although not everyone in Scotland thinks the serious problems facing the DRS is worth worrying about. It seems Scottish Green MSP Mark Ruskell thinks it’s all incredibly funny. He believes the fact that one of Scotland’s leading brewing firms is branding the DRS “illegal” is cause for levity.
I put a few questions concerning these matters to Mr Ruskell, but no response to my questions has been received. Perhaps at some point the giggling Green member for Mid Scotland and Fife region could let us in on the joke. The punchline needs some explaining.