Chamber and committees

We could have withdrawn the SSI and modified it, but the timeline for scrutiny would have been very much compressed and we felt that it was important for the committee to be able to scrutinise the regulations.

From the internal market act intervention, we know that we might have to bring before Parliament more regulations, not only around whether the October 2025 date is deliverable but around other matters, such as the amount of the deposit. By continuing with this SSI—with these amendments, as promised to industry—we completely define the Scottish scheme and avoid that cliff edge. We do so using the smoothest parliamentary process.

Was it 60 per cent?

That is a really nice way of putting it. As I have said, the regulations as they were originally passed in 2020 were made deliberately broad to allow the industry to find its way. The amendments represent feedback from the industry on the support that it would like to make the scheme work best for its members. We have gone and done what it asked us to do.

It will not replace it—it will just amend the date.

Thank you, convener, We have covered the matter extensively, so I will go straight to moving the motion.

I move,

That the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee recommends that the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Amendment Regulations 2023 [draft] be approved.

Yes—sorry. There will be some consequential date changes around registration, but it will be to do with that date. There will be no more definition of the scheme in terms of the materials included in it and so on. It is specifically in order to get that date right.

As I have said, there are some consequential date changes in terms of the registration date. The registration date for 16 August, for example, required a March date, so if we were to move to October 2025, there would be other consequential dates associated with that. However, that would be the full matter.

I am happy for you to move to the decision, convener.

Motion agreed to,

That the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee recommends that the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Amendment Regulations 2023 [draft] be approved.

In planning the process and looking at our options after last week’s disruption, I considered the option of working within the given parliamentary days. It is the smoothest process for ensuring that scrutiny happens and that things do not hit the cut-off within the given parliamentary days.

I ask Ailsa Heine to review the process again.