Secretary of State for Scotland Malcolm Offord has said that the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) debacle should be an "opportunity to change the way" Scottish and UK governments collaborate in the future.
Speaking from London as part of the the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) Forum in Edinburgh, he was asked about the future for Scotland's version of the recycling scheme, given yesterday's message from Westminster that glass would not be allowed under the UK Internal Markets Act to ensure “simplicity and interoperability”.
First Minister Humza Yousaf is meeting with his cabinet today to discuss a way forward for a separate Scottish DRS, which is currently due to launch next March.
"I see this as an opportunity to change the way we operate going forward," stated Offord in response to a question from Scottish Retail Consortium director David Londsdale.
"We want to have a single market across the UK, minimising divergence, particularly in trade - the principal is that there are certain things we should do on a unitary basis - we have the same recycling scheme because goods travel across borders.
"I see this as being a test case, where we all want recycling schemes, so let's just get round the table and create one that works for everybody."
Offord continued: "Let's come together, take glass out of it, work out a UK scheme, then we can roll it out and get better organised going forward."
Responding to a follow-up question from host Sally Magnusson about the impression given by ministers from Holyrood and Westminster instead sending letters to one another, he stated: "I live in Edinburgh and come to work down here, people in Whitehall are nervous about overstepping the mark and interfering in Scottish legislation.
"In this matter the Scottish Government have gone ahead and come to us quite late... the lesson to be learned is that there should have been far more interaction at and earlier date."
Recently given the title of UK Minister for Exports, Offord argued that "behind the headlines, there's a lot of interaction between Scottish and UK governments", giving the example of work that the Department of Business and Trade does with export body Scottish Development International.
He also took a question from Claire Mack, chief executive of industry group Scottish Renewables, about the tension between export and import in terms of wind turbine technology.
After talking up Scotland's expertise in the area, Offord lamented the fact that the ScotWind leasing round had been conducted so quickly, rather than over a period of 10 years, which would have allowed for local supply chains to develop.
"We can't change that now, but there's a lot of effort going into how to get Scottish SMEs alongside this energy transition, I certainly know of a number of active programmes from both the Scottish and UK governments.
"We don't want the ScotWind stuff to arrive in 2030, with all the kit coming in from Dubai and China.
"So that's a live conversation, and an area we have to get right," he added.
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