And, in strongly worded criticisms, UK government environment minister Lord Benyon has spoken of the potential for the Scottish scheme to cause “booze cruises” and “carnage”.
To get the Scottish DRS underway, internal market approval is needed and now the UK government – through environment minister in the House of Lords, Lord Benyon – has revealed that the Scottish government has not yet received any ministerial request for the required “internal market exemption”. However, Lord Benyon did confirm that there had been discussions at official level.
‘Carnage’
The comments were made by Lord Benyon, in a debate in the House of Lords yesterday (27 February) where he heavily criticised the Scottish proposal. And, he said that he agreed with “One of the front-runners to lead the SNP” … “that if it rolls out in Scotland in August as planned, it will create ‘carnage’.”
Liberal Democrat Lord Bruce of Bennachie said that Lorna Slater, the Scottish minister in charge, “ has no idea how it is going to work but insists it is still going ahead. Is not the reality that we need a UK-wide scheme that will meet the needs of people in Scotland and elsewhere, where it is extremely divisive and clearly incompetent, and, if we have a UK-wide scheme, the government’s responsibility is to press ahead with it as quickly as possible?”
The scheme will result in huge costs and even the risk of booze cruises
Lord Benyon replied that it is “perfectly possible to run a perfectly sensible scheme. We have been discussing a scheme with the Welsh and Northern Irish Governments, but it should be run in alignment right across these islands. The Scottish Government have sought to appear more virtuous and to rush this, and they have failed the Scottish people and Scottish businesses. The scheme will result in huge costs and even the risk of booze cruises, so that people can go south of the border to get drink at 50% less cost. This is entirely ridiculous. We want to work with the people of Scotland to make sure we align on this.”
Polluter pays
Coming to the defence of the Scottish government, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party), said that “The very principle that this Government say they stand for, “polluter pays”, is being delivered. Does the Minister agree that, if the Government step in at this very late stage – if Westminster stops Scotland delivering what it has a right to do under devolved law – that will mean a collapse in business confidence and we will never see a bottle deposit scheme across these islands after Westminster steps into this business?”
The Baroness also noted that Biffa, as delivery body for Circularity Scotland, has spent £100 million and 500 jobs are being created.
Subscribe for free