A court has thrown out a £50m compensation claim against the Scottish government over its doomed deposit return scheme.
Waste management firm Biffa won a contract as part of plans to bring in the scheme, and later took ministers to court when the initiative was shelved.
Biffa had been seeking £51.4m in damages at the Court of Session to cover losses it said it had incurred through the project’s failure.
In a ruling published on Friday, Lord Sandison found against the firm.
His judgment read: “The court is not concerned with the question of who (if anyone) ought to be regarded as bearing political responsibility for the failure of the Scottish deposit return scheme to launch in August 2023.
“Rather, it is only concerned with the legal questions of whether the defenders owed a duty of care to the pursuer in either of the regards contended for, and, if so, whether any such duty was breached and loss was thereby caused to the pursuer.”
Biffa had argued that former Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater – who was the minister in charge of the project – made a “negligent misrepresentation” in a letter she sent the company which “provided assurances in respect of the viability of the scheme”, but did not mention the Scottish government would need an exemption from the UK government to the Internal Market Act (IMA) for it to go ahead.
Westminster legislation governs trade between the different parts of the UK post-Brexit.
Then Scottish secretary Lord Jack refused to grant an exemption to the Scottish government – which meant Holyrood ministers could not proceed with plans to include glass bottles in their scheme, and ultimately left them unable to bring in deposit return as planned in August 2023.
Former Scottish secretary Lord Alister Jack in 2024. Pic:…
