Deposit Return Scheme queries: EIR release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all correspondence, including emails, minutes/notes from meetings/briefings between the UK Government and the Scottish Government about the deposit return scheme from the last six months?

2. Could you supply all correspondence, including emails, minutes/notes from meetings/briefings between Biffa and the Scottish Government about the deposit return scheme from the last six months?

3. How much money has been spent by the Scottish Government on the deposit return scheme overall, including on analysis, court cases, loans/costs to set up?

4. Could you supply all analysis undertaken by or for the Scottish Government about deposit return schemes in other countries, from the last year?

5. Could you supply all correspondence, including emails, minutes/notes from meetings/briefings between shops and the Scottish Government about the deposit return scheme from the last 12 months?’

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Question 1

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at Regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs, a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is ‘manifestly unreasonable’.

The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on the Regulation 10(4)(b) exception here says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”.

In this case, carrying out your request under the EIRs would impose a significant resource and cost burden on the Scottish Government due to the volume of materials that would be considered as a part of said request. For these reasons, we consider that your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under Regulation 10(4)(b).

As the exception is conditional we have applied the ‘public interest test’. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.

While we recognise that there may be some public interest in correspondence between the Scottish Government and the UK Government relating to the Deposit Return Scheme from the last six months, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.

You may however wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it more manageable. For example, this could be done by reducing the date range required or by only requesting specific types of information. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website here.

Question 2

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, after conducting relevant searches of our corporates records, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold any material in relation to your request.

Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 3

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as it would not be possible to provide a total expenditure figure in relation to Scottish Government spending on the Deposit Return Scheme. I have set out the reasons for this along with available expenditure figures below for your convenience.

It may help if I explain that Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of their work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to provide an expenditure figure regarding how much the Scottish Government has spent on work by Civil Servants involved with the Deposit Return Scheme.

Therefore, with respect to your request for a total expenditure figure, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

You can find some of the figures you requested in our response to you on the 02 April 2024, under reference 202300391068. This can also now be found on published on the Scottish Government website here: Deposit return scheme data: EIR release.

In addition to the figures provided in our previous response above, to date, the Scottish Government has spent £169,708.00 on costs related to the legal case brought by Biffa against the Scottish Ministers.

Since the release of these figures, there has been no additional costs incurred by the Scottish Government in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme over and above staffing costs, which, for the reason stated above, cannot be quantified.

Question 4

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, after conducting relevant searches of our corporates records, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold any material in relation to your request.

Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 5

I have included copies of the information you have requested below in Annex B.

On reviewing materials within scope of your request some exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs.

You can find information on the exceptions that have been applied to information below in Annex A.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202500448011 - Information Released - Annex

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