Single use cups: letter to Minister

To: Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy
cc/ Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic
cc/ Minister for Business

From: Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair – Regulatory Review Group
c/o RRG Secretariat

I am writing as Chair of the Regulatory Review Group (RRG) to provide independent advice on the charging for single-use disposable beverage cups, currently at consultation stage, proposed to introduce a robust but proportionate system which reduces the number of single-use cups while simultaneously increase the use of reusable cups.

This note provides an overview of the RRG’s role and details recommendations on definitions, use of funds, enforcement and communications considerations.

Regulatory Review Group (RRG)

The independent RRG was re-established by the Scottish Government as part of the New Deal for Business to support Scottish Ministers in improving the regulatory environment for businesses and their involvement in that process. The RRG’s membership is detailed in the annex. The RRG consider upcoming regulatory developments and as part of its work programme identified the single-use disposable beverage cup charge as a scrutiny priority.

The RRG’s objectives are to:

• work constructively with the Scottish Government to ensure that policy officials and relevant Ministers are sighted on implementation challenges with regulations early in development
• deliver purposeful and targeted written and verbal advice to the Scottish Government, drawing upon extensive expert insight from business and regulators across Scotland
• support the delivery of the New Deal for Business by ensuring that the potential barriers to the success of Scottish Government policies are removed through an improved understanding of the practicalities of implementation

The RRG’s remit is to examine and identify implementation challenges and appropriate mitigations of regulation. The RRG does not provide a view on the appropriateness of substantive policy or decisions to be taken on legislative priorities.

Single-use disposable beverage cup charge

Along with RRG members, I met with your officials on Thursday 27 August 2024. Your officials provided an insightful presentation on the policy issue and provided detailed responses to our questions. This charge provides the potential to significantly reduce the environmental harm in Scotland caused by single-use cups, and it is in the spirit of supporting that endeavour that this advice is provided.

The following recommendations have been made by the RRG for consideration as part of the policy development and legislative process:

1. Implementation must be carefully thought through and structured, with ample time given to ensure public understanding and compliance from business. The RRG welcomes the proposed implementation timetable which members believe should allow time for appropriate consideration and implementation. 

2. Comparison with the plastic bag charge must be approached with caution. While some of the principles are the same it must be noted that there are also fundamental differences. There are practical lessons to be learned including the level of businesses which were compliant and whether they were keeping records or not. The RRG recommends the Scottish Government engage with Local Authority regulators and takes learning from the plastic bag charge into account to aid understanding of previous issues, and inform successful implementation and enforcement of this charge.

3. Clarity is needed on what constitutes as a ‘reusable’ cup to ensure the desired behaviour adopted. A potential unintended consequence of compostable disposable cups being included in the charge would be an incentive for businesses to stock the cheapest plastic ‘reusable’ option. Customers may therefore, discard after one use due to the cups’ poor quality. This will have a negative impact on the environment and is not the envisioned effect of this policy. The RRG highlights how important it is to consider business and customer behaviour when detailing the definition of ‘reusable’ to avoid inconsistency across businesses.

Businesses who fill a reusable cup brought in by the customer that has not been adequately cleaned may be at higher risk for food safety issues or outbreaks. There will be an associated cost to business if they were to provide cleaning facilities and in response to this, businesses may not be willing to use customer brought in reusable cups. This will have a negative impact on both small business and consumers and the RRG advises the Scottish Government should consider what safeguarding is needed. 

4. To ensure appropriate usage of funds, the calculation of admin costs must be set out clearly to business. To avoid disparity across businesses, the future of the charge must also be considered. If the intention for it is to stay at 25p, it must be clear, or it must state that the charge will be adjusted in line with inflation. Lack of clarity may lead to customer confusion and have a negative impact on small business. 

5. Enforcement powers may be provided but enforcement will not be prioritised by local authorities unless additional resources are offered. If the sector can largely self-regulate, then strict enforcement may not be needed. The RRG recommends that the Scottish Government engage with reserved regulations, in order to avoid late issues emerging on alignment, as happened during the development of the Deposit Return Scheme. There are lessons to be learned on price marking and consumer protection if this policy is to be successful in implementation and enforcement. The RRG also recommends that the Scottish Government identify and assess specific business models that may be differently affected such as self-service drink stations and how these will be enforced and monitored.

6. There is potential for confusion to arise for individuals in understanding how each individual requirement they were subjected to fitted into the overall aims for Scotland. It should be clear to businesses and consumers how the single-use disposable beverage cup charges fits into the Circular Economy Framework to ensure public by-in. The RRG recommends that the Scottish Government engage with Consumer Scotland on this, along with Circular Economy and Net Zero officials, to consider consumer interaction and coordinate consumer messaging. 

The RRG invites your policy officials to return to the RRG once this work has progressed to further explore implementation challenges and constructively engage on mitigations.

A copy of this letter will be published on the RRG’s webpage and has been sent to your Ministerial colleagues with an interest in this area.

The RRG would be happy to discuss the above recommendations with you and would welcome an update on how the Scottish Government intends to take this forward during the policy development and legislative process.

Yours sincerely

Professor Russel Griggs OBE
Chair, Regulatory Review Group

Annex - membership of RRG

• Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chairman
• Fiona Richardson, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA)
• James Fowlie, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA)
• Brian Lawriet, Environmental Health
• David MacKenzie, Trading Standards
• Ewan Macdonald-Russell, Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC)
• Susan Love, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Douglas White, Consumer Scotland

Members are representatives of business, regulators and consumers, however, are acting independently in their RRG involvement.