Circularity Scotland are a private limited company established to deliver DRS on behalf of drinks producers. They do not report to the Scottish Government. However officials and I have met regularly with Circularity Scotland as part of preparations for the DRS scheme

The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 require a scheme administrator to report to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), on behalf of producers, as required, (a) the number of scheme articles first made available by that producer to be marketed, offered for sale or sold for the purposes of its retail sale in Scotland, (b) whether the scheme packaging in which those scheme articles were contained or sold was made wholly or mainly from PET plastic, glass, steel or aluminium, (c) the number of items of scheme packaging returned to the producer by wholesalers and retailers, (d) the number of items of scheme packaging collected by the producer from each return point operator, retailer providing a takeback service and hospitality retailer. A scheme administrator must also provide any information requested by the Scottish Ministers or SEPA for the purposes of monitoring compliance with the requirements in regulations 10(1) and 11(1) that relate to producer obligations.

Circularity Scotland also play a key role in the system wide governance framework and are represented in both the Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group and the Executive Oversight Group.

I refer the member to my statement of 7 June 2023 which has been published on the Scottish Parliament website. The process for considering an exclusion for Scotland’s DRS from the Internal Market Act led to the unilateral UK Government decision on 26 May not to agree a full exclusion by removing glass and imposing uncertain conditions on interoperability. This decision left the Scottish Government with no other option than to delay launch until October 2025 at the earliest, according to UK Government aspirations for their scheme. We regularly publish information and will consider any updated publication in light of these further substantive developments. UK Government has not challenged the accuracy of our published timeline.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18432 on 14 June 2023. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18425 on 14 June 2023. I confirm there was no crossover with the Implementation Assurance Group and Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group. The Implementation Assurance Group was disbanded in 2020 with the Ministerial Strategy Assurance Group forming in May 2023.

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

The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group first met on 22 May 2023. The meeting was held virtually on MS Teams.

Circularity Scotland are a private limited company, Scottish Government do not hold records of Circularity Scotland and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs discussions regarding DRS. However, we are aware that Circularity Scotland have written directly to Defra on a number of occasions regarding the Deposit Return Scheme.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme has been based on successful schemes across Europe. The Minister has been thoroughly briefed by Zero Waste Scotland on relevant research findings throughout the policy’s development.

As stated in question S6W 18000 on 31 May 2023, research was undertaken by Zero Waste Scotland, who designed the scheme, and met with a range of international scheme administrators and operators, including those from Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Iceland, Denmark and Finland.

This research and briefing has meant that the minister has been fully appraised of the main characteristics of schemes across Europe and has not therefore personally travelled to the countries listed.

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

The Scottish Government is committed to transparency and openness. We aim to publish key information such as notes of meetings and letters relating to the deposit return scheme as soon as possible.

As set out in the Scottish Government publication of 28 February 2023 on “Timeline and process for securing an Internal Market Act exclusion for DRS”, in July 2021 the Scottish Government proposed a broad exclusion from the Internal Market Act under the Resources and Waste Common Framework which would have covered future policy such as DRS. The UK Government’s decision to agree only a narrow exclusion for single-use plastics resulted in the need for Scottish Government to again follow the agreed and published process in preparing a separate proposal for an exclusion for DRS. UK Government advised that cross-administration discussion should follow official level agreement on the interim Resources and Waste Common Framework – which was agreed in September 2022 - and clarity on UK Government Ministers following the 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest. Cross-administration discussions under the Common Framework began as soon as practicable thereafter.

I refer the member to Scottish Government’s publication on 28 February 2023 of the timeline and process for securing an Internal Market Act exclusion for the Deposit Return Scheme: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/correspondence/2023/02/internal-market-act-correspondence/documents/timeline-and-process-for-securing-an-internal-market-act-exclusion-for-drs/timeline-and-process-for-securing-an-internal-market-act-exclusion-for-drs/govscot%3Adocument/DRS%2BTimeline%2Band%2BProcess.pdf

This is clear that Scottish Government sought an exclusion from the Internal Market Act for Scotland’s DRS under the Resources and Waste common framework since July 2021.

When the UK Government unilaterally decided in March 2022 to agree only a narrow exclusion for single-use plastics under the Common Framework, Scottish and Welsh Ministers made clear their concerns on impacts on other policy developments. I refer the member to the published communiqué from the 21 March 2022 meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs https://www.gov.scot/publications/inter-ministerial-group-for-environment-food-and-rural-affairs-21-march-2022/ .