Chamber and committees

Circularity Scotland Limited is a private not for profit company set up by industry. As an independent private company, it is not required to report to the Scottish Government. Therefore the Scottish Government does not hold any information on day-to-day expenditure incurred by Circularity Scotland in May and April 2023.

Circularity Scotland Limited is a private not for profit company set up by industry. As an independent private company, it is not required to report to the Scottish Government. Therefore the Scottish Government does not hold any information on expenditure incurred by Circularity Scotland during the financial year 2022-2023. Circularity Scotland is currently in administration. More information on this can be found at: Interpath Administrators appointed to Circularity Scotland Ltd (interpathadvisory.com) .

The Scottish Government was first informed that Circularity Scotland was likely to go into administration late on 19 June 2023 and was formally told that they were appointing administrators on 20 June 2023. The administrators confirmed they had been appointed on their website on 21 June 2023.

We had told the UK Government that Circularity Scotland were likely to go into administration should they not provide a full exclusion to the Internal Market Act for the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland to allow it to go ahead as planned on 1 March 2024.

Officials from the Scottish Government met with the administrators of Circularity Scotland on 23 June 2023 and also on 3 July.

The Scottish Government is not aware on which specific date Circularity Scotland first informed Scottish Enterprise that it was at risk of going in to administration.

The Scottish Government assesses and monitors a range of risks relating to the delivery of the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland and takes appropriate action.

Circularity Scotland is now in administration and the Scottish Government is considering the next steps in accordance with the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020.

We remain committed to the delivery of the Deposit Return Scheme but as stated in Parliament on 7 th June, this will not now launch until October 2025 at the earliest due to the UK Governments 11 th hour intervention through their decision on the Internal Market Act exclusion.

Given that labelling, including barcodes, is a reserved issue and therefore requirements for barcodes and labels were not part of the regulations covering Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, we have not previously engaged with GS1 UK, who are a company dealing with barcodes.

However, I have asked officials to reach out to GS1 UK to offer to meet with them.

All Ministerial Engagements, travel and gifts received are proactively published within 3 months in line with the Scottish Ministerial Code . I refer the member to the following link: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

There are currently three stakeholder groups that are chaired by the Scottish Government, these are; Deposit Return Scheme - Retailers Sector Group Meeting, Deposit Return Scheme - Hospitality Sector Group Meeting, and Deposit Return Scheme - Producer Sector Group Meeting. There are also plans for a separate Local Authority stakeholder group which have been delayed by recent developments.

These groups provide a platform for communication and discussion for stakeholders and maintain relationships to ensure transparent communication and that all stakeholders are inputting into the process.

Decisions remain with organisations that are best placed to make them e.g. if SEPA are responsible they will have their own decision-making process and this will be respected.

The Minister does not sit on the stakeholder groups however the Minister does receive updates from the groups.

The Minister chairs the Ministerial Strategy Assurance Group, referred to in answers to questions S6W-18537, S6W-18540 and S6W-18541 on 15 June 2023. The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group’s purpose is to discuss issues which may need escalated following discussions at the stakeholder groups. The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Groups includes representatives who sit on the individual stakeholder groups to ensure these discussions are joined up.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers