Scotland’s bottle return scheme could create unlawful trade barrier

Aidan O'Neill KC

The initiative, due to launch in August, aims to boost recycling by means of a 20p deposit on single-use drinks bottles and cans.

In advice for a group of distillers, Mr O’Neill said the Scottish government may have to delay the scheme until 2025, when a similar scheme is set to launch in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The scheme’s critics say it will disrupt trade and create higher prices while reducing choice.

It would see every drinks producer in Scotland forced to add 20p to products to be sold in a single-use container. In order to recoup the charge, people will have to take empty bottles or cans to a reverse vending machine or designated return point.

Some 17,000 return points will be set up in Scotland, with the scheme due to go live on 16 August.

Mr O’Neill said there were “well-founded” concerns that the scheme would create a trade barrier between Scotland and England because it would demand different prices be charged for the same product either side of the border, thereby falling foul of the UK Internal Market Act 2020.

The double silk also warned that the regulations could not be enforced for single-use packaged drinks that are imported into Scotland from elsewhere in the UK.

He added that the Scottish government was warned about such legal difficulties – in 2020.

Fiona MacEachern, co-founder of Loch Lomond brewery, told BBC Scotland: “We know we need to get to Net Zero. We know businesses need to make changes.

“But the Deposit Return Scheme is just too complicated for smaller firms. They’re not listening to smaller business. They’re listening to bigger business.”

She added: “This is one of the most difficult schemes of its type in the world, which makes it one of the most expensive and most difficult to negotiate.”

“We still don’t have all the answers we need to complete everything. It’s not a simple process. We need another 18 months to let the system settle down, before smaller businesses are involved.”