UK Government blocked bottle return scheme to give SNP a ‘black eye’, court told

A UK Government minister blocked a Scottish deposit return scheme (DRS) in order to give the SNP a “black eye”, a court has been told.

Scotland’s former circularity minister Lorna Slater accused former Scottish secretary Alister Jack of acting in “bad faith” when he refused to grant an exclusion for glass bottles under the internal market act (IMA).

This decision led to the Scottish Government changing its plans for the scheme in 2023.

A UK-wide DRS is planned but it is not expected to begin before 2027.

Biffa Waste Services is suing the Scottish Government at the Court of Session, seeking tens of millions of pounds worth of reparations over the decision to delay the DRS.

Giving evidence to the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Tuesday, Ms Slater said Lord Jack had “single-handedly undermined” the scheme using what was effectively a ministerial veto.

The Scottish Greens MSP told the court: “Alister Jack saw a political opportunity – and relations between the governments were not good – to give the SNP a black eye and to undermine my credibility, because he could.

“He had effective power of veto to the Scottish DRS.”

Giving evidence on Friday, Lord Jack dismissed the suggestion his concerns were politically motivated, insisting it was “beholden” to him as Scottish secretary to “ensure our businesses and our consumers were protected”.

The former Scottish Greens co-leader also said her Government had been set an “impossible” condition in relation to the deposit level to be applied to containers covered by the scheme.

She said that in negotiations over the exclusion in early 2023 the UK Government had said the level in the Scottish scheme needed to match that of the UK scheme.

However, she pointed out the UK level had not been set yet.

“The UK Government were setting a condition on the Scottish Government that the Scottish Government could not possibly meet,” she said.

She added that her government had not “anticipated” that the UK Government would use the IMA to block a scheme that all four nations were working to implement, and which had been set out in the 2019 UK Conservative party manifesto.

The hearing continues.