Chamber and committees

You said earlier that there is now effectively a doorstep-ready DRS in Scotland. In your discussions with Rebecca Pow and other ministers, will you be presenting it as a scheme that has effectively been designed by the industry itself?

Okay. It would be useful to get a sense of what the reaction has been from businesses that would benefit from those amendments and whether there are calls for others to be made, beyond the larger issues of glass.

I welcome the SSI, which was lodged some time ago. It represents the fact that the minister and her officials have, over time, listened to business and actively engaged with the sector. As a result, business has helped shape the scheme, and we are probably as close as we can be to a consensus on what a model DRS scheme for Scotland—and, potentially, the rest of the UK—could look like.

Inevitably, there will always be sectors, particularly those that favour glass as well as the glass industry itself, that will want glass to be excluded from any scheme and which will try to seek a commercial advantage over other businesses by doing so. However, this scheme has captured the consensus and has been shaped by business; it can operate in Scotland and could be adopted across the rest of the UK.

The Government has worked long enough on this. In fact, there has been so much consultation and engagement with business that we now have a model that should set the direction for the rest of the UK with regard to interoperability. I am proud of where we as a Parliament have got to with the scheme and proud of what the Government has achieved. We will be ready to go with the scheme as soon as we are able to.

I have got just one final question, convener. Is it okay if we go back to you after that?

Good morning, minister and officials. I am sorry that I cannot join you in person. You spoke about moving forward in a spirit of collaboration. What does that route forward now look like, in terms of trying to secure agreement on interoperability and on other areas where there is significant uncertainty regarding the Scottish DRS and its interrelationship with other schemes around the UK? How does that now take place?

Great. The question that follows on from that, minister, is about the divergence within the UK. Is there a sense that the UK Government wants one single scheme for the whole of the UK, or is it a matter of allowing the different nations of the UK to have their own schemes, but with a requirement for maximum alignment? Will any divergence at all be allowed? You mentioned that there might be different regulations in Northern Ireland in relation to bottle sizes. Is there one common model for DRS now across the UK that the UK Government wants to be in place, or is there the possibility of different schemes but with an element of alignment?

I will gladly do that, convener.

I turn to the specific amendments that are being brought forward in the regulations today. Will the minister outline what those are and what the reaction from industry has been to those changes, given that many in the industry were calling for them?

The second part of my question is about what the specific areas of uncertainty are. Could you run through those?

Can I just get that clear? You are saying that, in effect, the common frameworks do not exist. What is the forum, then, for a discussion on all the areas of uncertainty, such as the level of the deposit in England’s scheme, and labelling? What is the forum for that uncertainty to be discussed and resolved?

Right. Is there a way forward? What if Minister Pow turned round and said, “We’ll discuss all the areas of uncertainty and grant the Scottish DRS the ability to set the framework for the rest of the UK”? Or what if we just had a set of rules that could exist for a period of time?