Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of her Department’s work to design and implement a Deposit Return Scheme for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, whether it has made an assessment of the potential merits of using (a) radio frequency identification tagging and (b) barcodes to support the introduction of a Digital Deposit Return Scheme.

Whilst some parts of industry are exploring the potential of a Digital DRS, a scalable technical solution does not currently exist for this type of model, and will not for a number of years. Therefore, we are currently delivering a Deposit Return Scheme that follows the ‘return to retail’ model as used internationally in other DRS’s. We do recognise the benefits of a digital model and remain encouraged and interested in seeing the continued testing of the feasibility for introducing a digital scheme in the future. Should other opportunities for innovation emerge, we believe that the scheme will be able to evolve and adapt in line with the lifespan of the original infrastructure.