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Jack 'undermined' recycling scheme, Slater says

Lynsey BewsBBC Scotland News political correspondent
PA Media Lorna Slater, who has blonde curly hair and glasses, smiles as she looks to her left. She is wearing a blue top and multi-coloured necklace.PA Media
Lorna Slater left government following the collapse of the SNP-Green power-sharing deal

Scotland's deposit return recycling scheme was "single-handedly undermined" by former Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, ex-minister Lorna Slater has claimed.

The plans collapsed in 2023 after a row between the Scottish and UK governments over internal market rules, leading waste firm Biffa to sue Holyrood ministers for more than £50m.

Slater, giving evidence at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, accused Lord Jack of vetoing the scheme for political purposes.

Lord Jack told the court last week that the Scottish government had been "utterly irresponsible" in encouraging firms to invest in the initiative.

Slater, a Green MSP who stepped down as a minister last year following the collapse of her party's power-sharing deal with the SNP, said she had expected the UK government to "act in good faith and work collaboratively" to grant the scheme an exemption under the Internal Market Act.

Downing Street refused to do so unless the Scottish government conformed to a UK-wide approach excluding glass, leading to the collapse of the Holyrood scheme.

Slater told the court: "I believe Alister Jack saw a political opportunity to give the SNP a black eye and to undermine my credibility, because he had this effective power of veto."

Roddy Dunlop KC, representing Biffa, questioned Slater over her claim that the UK government had acted in "bad faith".

Getty Images Alister Jack, who has dark grey hair, looks at the camera while walking in front of a grey brick wall. He is wearing a dark grey suit, white shirt and blue tie. Getty Images
Former Scottish secretary Alister Jack says he acted to protect businesses and consumers

He raised issues over the inclusion of glass in the Scottish scheme and the 20p deposit rate that would have been applied to recyclable items - key sticking points in the discussions about granting an internal market exemption.

Slater told the court that UK ministers could have signalled much earlier that they would not tolerate a divergence on glass, but instead had done so "at the 11th hour".

She said UK ministers were also "setting a condition that couldn't possibly be met" by calling for alignment on the rate of the deposit - because that detail had not yet been agreed for a scheme south of the border.

Mr Dunlop put it to the former minister that it reflected very poorly on the Scottish government to allow Biffa to "sale into a situation" where tens of millions of pounds were at stake without at least mentioning the internal market risks.

Slater said there was "no actual reason" to use the Internal Market Act to block the scheme, unless it was for political purposes.

The former minister added that she did not anticipate the risk of legislation being used in that way.

'Eleventh hour' objection

The Scottish government has always insisted it was not to blame for the collapse of the plans and that it followed the proper processes around internal market rules.

Lord Jack, now a peer in the House of Lords, told the court that the scheme was not "viable" unless it had an exemption from internal market rules.

He said the Scottish government did not submit a detailed application until 2023, in the months before the scheme was due to go live.

Lord Jack told the court the application should have been made a year earlier when he said it was clear an exemption was needed.

"Divergence was very clear from a very early stage," he said. "My responsibility was to protect free trade, consumers and business who were very concerned about this in relation to the economy."

Scotland is not expected to have a deposit return scheme until October 2027 at the earliest, when Holyrood ministers are expected to align their plans with a UK government initiative.