EU single use plastics directive consultation: partial business and regulatory impact assessment

3.0 Consultation

3.1 Consultation Within Government

17. The Scottish Government Environment and Forestry Directorate has engaged with other relevant teams across the Scottish Government regarding the potential impacts of the policy on, for example:

• Socio-economic inequality issues such as low income, low wealth, and area deprivation;
• Different geographic communities including island communities;
• Disabled people; and
• Businesses, including the food and drink industry and the hospitality sector.

3.2 Public Consultation

18. This Partial BRIA will be published alongside the Scottish Government consultation paper on the proposed market restrictions. That public consultation will run for 12 weeks from 12 October 2020 to 4 January 2021.

3.3 Business Consultation

19. Engagement with businesses will identify: (1) the current state of the market for the specified single-use plastic items in Scotland; (2) the evidence-base related to individual items (e.g. sales volume; unit cost per item); (3) industry views around the impact of market restrictions for the items; and (4) the potential for unintended consequences of market restrictions.

20. To understand the full impacts of the proposed legislation on small, medium, and large businesses, discussions with an appropriate cross-section of affected stakeholders will be held. It is expected that the following stakeholder groups will be directly affected by the proposed legislation:

• Scottish manufacturers
• Suppliers
• Wholesalers
• Hospitality businesses
• Retail and retail representative bodies
• Recycling and waste management organisations.

The following stakeholder groups are expected to be indirectly affected by the proposed legislation:

• Plastics additive suppliers
• Raw materials suppliers
• Equipment suppliers
• Environmental, conservation, food and health charities
• Public sector organisations
• Members of the public.