3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the introduction of a deposit-return scheme for drink containers in Wales? OQ56625

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. The Welsh Government is committed to bringing forward a deposit-return scheme for drink containers, and our preferred model was set out in the recent consultation. Alongside the work to review the consultation responses, a trial is currently under way in Conwy to pilot the digital delivery of a deposit-return scheme.  

Thank you. You'll be aware that, last November, I brought forward a legislative proposal for a Bill that would make provisions to introduce a deposit-return scheme and to reduce waste in Wales, and a majority of 34 Members backed my proposal. Now, whilst you abstained, the vote did go in favour of this legislative proposal and, as you can imagine, I'm really keen to ensure that we do not lose that momentum gained, especially at the start of a new—and it being the sixth—Senedd term. I was therefore somewhat disappointed, First Minister, that with such a worthwhile and proven piece of legislation forthcoming, there is no clear commitment in your programme for government, introduced last week, to develop a DRS.

You quite rightly mentioned that Conwy County Borough Council is working with Welsh Government, Polytag Ltd and WRAP to trial the new DRS. The intention is for interviews with residents and recycling crews after the trial to provide more information on how the scheme could be used across Wales. Should the trial go well in Conwy—as in the Wirral, where 91 per cent of tagged packaging was successfully recycled—by when would you expect to have an all-Wales DRS in place that is aligned to and interoperable with other systems across the UK? Thank you. Diolch.

I thank the Member very much for that question and for highlighting the pilot that is going on in around 500 homes in her own constituency, which is going to make a genuine contribution to our understanding of how a DRS could be taken forward. Ministers always abstain, Llywydd, on backbench legislature; that's the convention that we have. But I'm pleased to be able to say to the Member that we hope to secure powers for a deposit-return scheme for Wales through the UK Environment Bill. The latest information we have is that that is expected to complete its parliamentary passage in time to get Royal Assent in the autumn. We will then have the powers that we need to bring forward our regulations, and we expect to lay those in the autumn as well.

Can I welcome the response given by the First Minister? I think this is something that many people across the Chamber are very much in favour of. On Friday, I met with pupils from Glyncollen school online, who were unanimously in favour of a deposit-return scheme. I told them about the old Corona pop scheme, which I mention fairly regularly here. Does the First Minister agree that the Welsh Government doing it is massively positive, but an all-UK programme would be much better? It would make it easier for firms to make sure that they can be bought in Chester and taken back in Wrexham, making it much easier for the scheme to work. Yes, I think we all would like a Welsh scheme, but an all-Britain scheme would be so much better.

I thank Mike Hedges for that. The tradition in Glyncollen school of campaigning on these matters is a very real one. I remember a question on the floor of the Senedd here about the work that pupils in the school were doing to make sure that milk was supplied to the school in a reusable format, rather than in cartons that were thrown away. So, many congratulations for their continued interest in it. Had they been brought up in Carmarthen rather than Swansea, Llywydd, they would have been drinking Tovali Special rather than Corona pop. But the general point that Mike Hedges raised—and I think it was an echo of something that Janet Finch-Saunders said—is that we would like to see a UK scheme, because we think that that will work better for people here in Wales. It's easier for consumers, of course—a long and porous border, people shopping and living on both sides of it, an influx of people into Wales, during the summer months particularly. We want people to have a single system that they can easily understand. There is a fraud possibility if you have different systems on either side of the border, and a single system would help to eliminate that. And it would have lower implementation costs for businesses as well. For all of those reasons, we hope that the UK Government, who, a bit to our surprise and slightly at the last minute, put into their consultation, instead of the all-in scheme that we would like to see, an on-the-go scheme—Scotland are already committed to an all-in scheme; that is definitely our preference. We hope the UK Government will settle for that as well, as we originally believed would be the case, and then we will be able to have the UK-wide arrangements that Mike Hedges I think quite rightly advocates.