Scotland: Bottle Deposit Return Scheme Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord West of Spithead
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Scotland: Bottle Deposit Return Scheme
Lord West of Spithead Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord Benyon (Con)
I think all of us will feel great sympathy for the noble Baroness in trying to defend what her party is doing as part of a coalition of abject failure. She talks about business; I can only quote what business says:
“Tens of thousands of businesses who produce, can, bottle, distribute, or sell alcoholic or soft drinks in Scotland now have less than a year to successfully adapt their operations, without the necessary knowledge or levers in place.”
It is not the principle of a deposit return scheme—I suspect some of us are old enough to remember the thruppenny bit—but how it is implemented. That, I am afraid to say, is right at the heart of the problem at Holyrood.
Lord West of Spithead (Lab)
Can the Minister tell us what will happen on His Majesty’s warships in relation to beverages? Not that we have many warships, so it is not too big a problem—but will it apply or not?