Monica Lennon: DRS a really depressing example of devolution breaking down

The Scottish Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) was “a really depressing example of devolution breaking down”, Monica Lennon has said.  

The MSP, who sits on the Scottish Parliament’s net zero committee, criticised the Scottish and UK governments for “not being able to get their act together” and deliver the scheme.  

Lennon made the comments at Scottish Labour’s annual conference in Glasgow during a Holyrood fringe event held in partnership with Coca-Cola, which was one of the businesses that lost money when Circularity Scotland – the company set up to run the DRS – went into administration last year, following the collapse of the scheme.  

Lennon said the impact on businesses and communities “has been really embarrassing” and said now there is “an opportunity to reset”.  

Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, Michael Marra said the scheme’s failure is “a real issue of competence” for the Scottish Government and that it has weakened the business sector’s confidence in it. He criticised then circular economy minister Lorna Slater, who oversaw the delivery of the scheme, for “willing” DRS to succeed, rather than working with businesses and their concerns.  

Marra said: “I think it is astonishing that no one has ever had to resign, frankly.” 

Asked who should have resigned, he added: “There was obviously a minister at the front of it. We’re now looking at the liabilities for the Scottish taxpayer, hundreds of millions of pounds, purely on the basis of incompetence.” 

Slater said the DRS had been “sabotaged” by UK ministers after the two governments were unable to come to an agreement on an exemption for the scheme from the Internal Market Act, which was required because Scotland was attempting to launch its scheme ahead of England and Wales. 

Sam Jones, head of climate and sustainability at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, who announced its support for a Scottish DRS in 2017 and until that point was a vocal opponent of it, said in the wake of the collapse of the DRS in Scotland, politicians should “accept their mistake” and acknowledge “it’s ok to change their position”.  

He said: “I’d like to think the lessons that politicians can learn is a bit of humility, to accept that you’ve made a mistake, and that it’s okay to change your position. Context changes and position of stakeholders change, and you need to be agile and be prepared to change. 

“I think we have seen that in Scotland, with the alignment of the regulations of the World Trade Organization, hopefully they’ll be laid properly and passed in the next couple of months. That alignment between Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England is brilliant because it gives us a critical mass to get a scheme up and running.”