Organisation: Federation of Small Businesses Scotland
Type: Press Release
Date: 06 June 2023
Commenting on the confirmation that the Scottish Government’s controversial Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will not proceed in its current form, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Scotland Policy Chair, Andrew McRae, said:
“This was a well-intentioned, but fundamentally flawed, scheme. As time went on, it became apparent it wasn’t going to work in its current form and was going to damage small producers and retailers on its way down.
“The questions we’ve been raising since 2018 about cost, space and time are still the issues troubling small businesses and there didn’t seem to be a clear route to address them.
“While many will feel relieved that this latest uncertainty has now, to an extent, been ended, we now need to get on with developing a system that stands a better chance of working – one that makes it as easy as possible for consumers, producers and retailers.
“Key to that will be learning the lessons from this episode and bringing the sort of small businesses, on whom government will be relying to deliver any such scheme, in on the ground floor.”
