Scottish Government departments involved in creating the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme policy: EIR release

Information requested

1.  “Which Scottish Government departments have been involved in the creation of the policy for the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme
2. What are the total legal costs associated with the DRS, accumulated since 2018?
3. Please provide any background notes, email exchanges, and internal communication between the First Minister and the leading Department (Environment and Climate Change) between 29th March 2023 and today 22nd May 2023.
4. “When did civil servants in the Scottish Government begin working on the DRS; and how much time has been spent on the DRS by civil servants since this date?
   
   This request is concerned with the costs that are omitted from FOI/202300352678.”

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.

Response

Question 1: 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of the work at any given time. Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information. 

To confirm, the Scottish Government structure does not recognise the term departments instead we consist of a number of directorates who are responsibility for progressing policy relevant to Scotland. However, it may help if I explain that the Scottish Government’s Directorate for Environment and Forestry is the lead department for the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) policy and that staff from other departments may be asked to support policy areas outwith their normal remit when required. Due to the above noted flexibility requirements it is therefore not possible to say specifically how many Scottish Government departments have been involved in the creation of the DRS as the development of the policy would require input from numerous other departments whose policies would interact with the scheme. 

Question 2: 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as legal advice can be provided both internally and externally and it would not be possible to calculate the total expenditure by the Scottish Government with regards to legal costs for the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information. 

It may help if I explain that legal advice may be sought in both internal and external capacities and that Scottish Government staff do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of time spent providing advice on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to provide a total cost and/or expenditure figure accrued by the Scottish Government with regards to legal advice received regarding the Deposit Return Scheme. 

Question 3:

To confirm, the Scottish Government structure does not recognise the term departments instead we consist of a number of directorates who are responsibility for progressing policy relevant to Scotland. However, I have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.

On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, an exception has been applied in line with the EIRs. The exception applied can be found in Annex A.

Question 4:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of the work at any given time. Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that as noted in our response to question 1 above Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of the 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 say specifically how much time has been spent by Civil Servants involved with work on the Deposit Return Scheme.

The Scottish Government published the Making Things Last Circular Economy Strategy on 23 February 2016 which set out that the Scottish Government would build on information provided to Zero Waste Scotland and give further consideration to the role that a Deposit Return Scheme could play in Scotland.

The 2017-2018 Programme for Government included an announcement that the Scottish Government would design and introduce a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers with the aims of increasing recycling rates and reducing littering across Scotland.

About FOI

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

202300357979_Annex_A

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1 page PDF

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89.6 kB

202300357979_Annex_B

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PDF

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272.4 kB