Rachael Hamilton (Ettrick,
Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con):...Our drinks
sector has faced an equally difficult period, having been forced
to adapt to legislative changes such as minimum unit pricing and
the threat of an unworkable Deposit return
scheme and plans to prevent whisky distilleries from
painting their names on their outside walls. For now, both the
fishing industry and the drinks sector have been saved by the
strength of their voice in opposing those plans and the
legislative incompetence of the Government that is trying to
implement such impositions...
Jamie Halcro Johnston
(Highlands and Islands) (Con)I apologise
for interrupting the trip through Christine Grahame’s Friday
night pub crawl. I was just wondering how those breweries were
impacted by the Deposit return
scheme proposals. How much preparation did they have to
put in and how much future investment has that affected?
...Speaking of kicking cans down the road, how many millions of
pounds and how many hundreds of thousands of hours have been
wasted because of the Scottish Government’s determination to push
ahead with its ill-thought-out plan for a Deposit return
scheme? We know that that has left the taxpayer millions
of pounds out of pocket, but how many small businesses were
forced to prepare for a scheme that was then dropped? They paid
out thousands—sometimes hundreds of thousands—of pounds to make
changes to their businesses but will not see any return on that
money any time soon, if ever. Millions of pounds from across the
sector are now lost to future investment.
For context, OPEN HERE
