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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on developing the interoperability criteria for deposit return schemes in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

In May 2023, the Government published a position statement setting out that deposit return schemes across the UK should be interoperable to reduce complexity for businesses and consumers, and to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade. Defra is working closely with devolved administrations at pace on the next steps to deliver interoperable schemes across the UK. We will be providing updates on this as soon as possible.