First Minister accuses Alister Jack of ‘distortion’ over deposit return comments

Nicola Sturgeon has accused Scottish Secretary Alister Jack of "distortion" over his comments on the deposit return scheme.

Defending the system, which is meant to launch in August, the First Minister said her government was continuing to make progress.

Douglas Ross warned during FMQs that the scheme would be a "disaster", pointing to a statement from circular economy minister Lorna Slater on Wednesday that revealed only a small number of producers had registered before the deadline.

He urged the government to "pause this scheme".

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton also urged the government to pause the scheme, pointing to an "avalanche of industrial concerns".

An intervention from the Scottish Secretary earlier this week also suggested the Scottish Government had not yet approached the UK government for an exemption to the UK Internal Market Act.

Accusing the Scottish Tory leader of "sheer opportunism" since the party previously supported the deposit return scheme, Sturgeon said: “The opportunism of that is frankly breath-taking, and so too is the – and I’ll use a parliamentary term that I believe is polite enough – so too is the blatant distortion of some opposition politicians, and yes I am talking about Alister Jack in particular.”

She added that the "most relevant figure" was that the producers that had registered with the scheme accounted for more than 90 per cent of the market.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney previously wrote to Alister Jack at the end of January calling for ministers to “expedite a rapid solution, including [an] exclusion to the IMA if that is required”.

Jack said on Tuesday evening that ministers had not “received a formal request setting out the scope and rationale for a UKIM exemption for the Scottish Government's deposit return scheme”.

Meanwhile, Labour's Anas Sarwar dubbed the choice being put the SNP members for the party's new leader was "woeful".

He added the candidates were "falling over themselves" to distance themselves from their own government's record.

He asked: “Nicola Sturgeon gave all of these candidates their first step up in Scottish politics, so I wonder, First Minister, with the benefit of hindsight which one do you regret appointing the most?”

The First Minister said she was “proud” of all who had served in her governments and suggested the Labour leader should be focusing on his own party.