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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to appoint an administrator for the deposit return scheme to be introduced in October 2025; and what funding will be made available to the administrator.

A scheme administrator referred to as the Deposit Management Organisation (DMO) will be responsible for managing the overall operation of a deposit return scheme for drinks containers (DRS). Secondary legislation will provide the Secretary of State with the powers to appoint the DMO and outline the criteria which will be taken into account in making the appointment. The appointment process will be launched once the regulations are in force.

The scheme will be funded through three income streams:

• Material revenue obtained from collected DRS material sold to reprocessors for recycling.
• Unredeemed deposits from drinks containers not returned into the scheme, for which a deposit was paid by a consumer on purchase of that container.
• Remaining costs will be covered by producer fees for drinks producers.