Chamber and committees

Thank you very much, David.

I remind members that we are trying to get to the nub of the problem and to identify the issues. As convener, I note that there have been quite a lot of interesting responses in the chamber, which are best for the chamber. This session is about delving down into the nitty gritty of the problem and I hope that members will support me in achieving that.

I will start. There is a pretty high bar for membership of Circularity Scotland—10 million containers on to the market, 20 million containers on return, trade associations representing companies that place more than 10 million. What slightly concerns me is how the smaller person—the smaller producer or retailer—can feel that they are represented and that their views are heard in Circularity Scotland. It seems to be a big scheme with big players, ignoring the little players. David, do you want to answer that?

You can keep going, Liam. I will bring in Fiona Hyslop to ask some questions at the end.

Brian, I was going to let you ask one further question, because everyone else had two.

Good luck in getting a quote for 2035. I suspect that that may prove difficult for connection to the grid.

The deputy convener, Fiona Hyslop, will now come in with some questions.

We move on to questions from Mark Ruskell.

Sorry, I will let Fergus Ewing come back in on that. Somebody has to pay, I guess.

I was hoping to get answers on a huge number of questions, one of which was whether you get a refund of your 20p or a credit against your shopping, because the refund might be critical at certain stages to certain people instead of a credit against the shopping. Those questions are still to be answered. The committee will have to consider what further work it wants to do on the matter, which we will do briefly in private session.

I thank the panel, therefore, for the evidence that it has given to the committee and ask witnesses to leave quickly so that we can consider what has been said.

A full but short answer would be appreciated, David.

I had cut you off, Mark, but I can let you in briefly if you have a subsequent question.

Sorry, Jackie—I will come back to you after this question.

The other day, I went into a shop—which will remain nameless—to buy 24 small bottles of water for £3 in total. There will be an additional 20p for each bottle. My maths suggests that the deposit will be more than the cost of the water. However, we do not know how that will be labelled and shown to the consumer, who is being told that there is not an increase in price. I am sorry, but I am totally confused.