The UK government is likely to issue a conditional exemption from internal market rules that could permit Scotland to “pilot a UK-wide scheme”, according to reports.
The BBC is reporting that UK ministers are expected to require glass to be excluded from the scheme. Other conditions are likely to include standardising the deposit charge, bar codes, and labelling across the UK.
It is thought the UK government will also insist on a reciprocal membership system so that businesses that join anywhere in the UK are automatically signed up across the UK.
Deputy First Minister Shona Robison told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme that the UK government was “interfering”.
She said: “It is an outrage that in an area that is fully devolved that the UK government and the Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack would seek to interfere yet again in a scheme that is wholly devolved for no other reason really than because they can.”
