Addendum to Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020: October 2026

Anticipated impacts and mitigating actions

SEPA

33. Bringing forward the provisions enabling SEPA to recover costs and undertake enforcement activity from the end of December 2026 will help ensure that the regulator is adequately resourced and able to provide implementation support to the scheme administrator, contributing to a more effective and robust regulatory framework. The scheme administrator will be obligated to pay such enforcement costs. The scheme administrator is anticipating these costs.

Scheme administrator

34. Enabling interest to be charged on late payment of producer registration fees will support the scheme administrator to exercise its functions to support a DRS. While SEPA can already take regulatory action against producers should they fail to pay producer registration fees, regulatory action may be considered disproportionate in the case of late payment, and we consider the ability for the scheme administrator to charge a late payment fee will generally be more effective and proportionate.

35. The scheme administrator will be responsible for setting the interest rate to be charged on late payment of registration fees and it would be expected that this would be included in its operational plan, in line with its obligation to explain how it will exercise its DRS. The scheme administrator will be responsible for providing guidance to producers to ensure transparency.

Export shops

36. Removing export shops from existing exemptions under the DRS regulations creates a more consistent regulatory approach across Scotland.

37. This amendment will support regulatory alignment with other Scottish retailers, reduce complexity for businesses operating in Scottish airports, and improve consumer clarity. The exemption for export shops is no longer considered necessary following the removal of glass from the scope of the Scottish DRS, as it is considered unlikely that significant volumes of PET plastic or aluminium scheme articles purchased in export shops would be unable to be consumed before leaving the country.

38. However, this may result in additional administrative requirements and costs for export shops that were previously exempt from certain obligations. We, alongside Exchange for Change and SEPA, will continue to engage with export shops and representative organisations to provide clear communications and guidance for affected businesses.

Hospitality retailers

39. Proposed hospitality provisions provide operators with greater flexibility in determining whether to charge deposits for scheme articles intended exclusively for consumption on the premises of sale. The amendments will also provide flexibility in how hospitality retailers manage their empty drinks containers, enabling businesses to adopt models that best align with their operational circumstances.

40. Hospitality retailers may choose to apply the deposit to drinks sold for consumption on the premises and off-site. In these circumstances they must continue to provide information explaining that the deposit has been charged and signpost the location of the nearest return point. Should a customer choose not to take away the empty scheme packaging, the hospitality retailer would not have an obligation to retain the packaging for the scheme administrator but would remain subject to the duty of care in relation to waste under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the related code of practice.

41. Alternatively, hospitality retailers may choose to opt out of charging a deposit on containers intended exclusively for consumption on the premises, acting as a closed loop. In these circumstances they must provide information to the customer that the deposit is not required to be charged, and that empty containers should remain on the premises.

42. Hospitality retailers will no longer have an obligation to retain containers for collection by the scheme administrator, but will have the option to do so. The scheme administrator will continue to have an obligation to provide a free collection of any containers retained by the hospitality retailer if a collection is requested. Hospitality retailers will remain subject to general recycling obligations as they are subject to the duty of care in relation to managing controlled and are also required to take reasonable measures to apply the waste hierarchy, meaning recycling targets are not expected to be affected by this amendment.

43. Hospitality retailers do not have an obligation to act as a return point, but may apply to the scheme administrator to do so on a voluntary basis which would then allow customers to redeem deposits on the premises of sale.

44. The proposed amendments align with provisions in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. They seek to accommodate operational models and consumer experience within the hospitality sector, while protecting against potential confusion regarding whether a deposit is charged in hospitality settings.

45. We will monitor the impact of the charging of deposits, return of containers, and collection rates within hospitality retailers and keep the regulations under review. If there is evidence of any impact on collection targets as a result of containers not being retained and returned by hospitality retailers then we will consider whether future regulatory intervention is required.