Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:04 pm on 25 November 2020.
Minister, I welcome this motion and the proposal. It's a debate we've had on several occasions with regard to deposit-return schemes, which I fully endorse and support. I've commented numerous times myself on my childhood, where we were, effectively, the 1960s equivalent to barcoding—that is, we collected the bottles, we returned them and we got the money, which went into our pockets. It's very interesting to see how, in countries like Germany, they've introduced barcoding machines, whereby, when you purchase a bottle, you return the bottle, you barcode it as you deposit it and it automatically refunds your bank account with the deposit equivalent. So, there are ways of doing it and I do very much support that.
Can I also comment on the fly-tipping issue, because I made the point, I think, in this Senedd some while back that the fines are not sufficient? You have councils that are doing good work in prosecuting those who are caught fly-tipping and tracing those caught fly-tipping, but the fines are derisory, to be honest. The fines, in my view, should be substantially increased and there should be also a mechanism for recovering the cost of actually clearing the site where the fly-tipping takes place.
But I do want to come on to the point that Jenny Rathbone raised, and I think it's a very serious one. Effectively, a deposit-return scheme is not one that we can now implement if the internal market Bill goes through, and I think Janet Finch-Saunders has to confirm that she and the Conservative group will oppose the internal market Bill, and those provisions in it that would actually prevent us from introducing this. Because it's all very well us talking about introducing something that we all support and want to see happen, whilst, at the same time in Westminster, we have a Government that's introducing capricious legislation that would actually prevent us from doing what we know we all want to do and have a mandate to do within Wales. Thank you, Llywydd.