Part 3: Waste and Resource Efficiency Section 54: Deposit schemes
Section 54 and Schedule 8 enable the relevant national authority – namely, the Secretary of State, in relation to England, Welsh Ministers, in relation to Wales, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, in relation to Northern Ireland – to make regulations establishing deposit schemes. Subsections (3) and (4) allow the Secretary of State to make regulations on behalf of Wales and Northern Ireland, subject to their consent. Subsections (5) and (6) outline the parliamentary procedure for regulations establishing a deposit scheme. Regulations are subject to the negative resolution procedure, except in the below cases when they are subject to the affirmative resolution procedure:
the regulations establish a deposit scheme for the first time;
the regulations are the first to provide for enforcement of a deposit scheme;
the regulations create a criminal offence;
the regulations provide for new civil sanctions; or
the regulations increase the amount or the maximum amount of a fine or monetary penalty, or change the basis on which an amount of maximum amount of a fine or monetary penalty is to be determined.
	Subsection (7) and paragraph 1(2) of the Schedule set out what a deposit scheme is. This is a scheme under which a person supplied with a deposit item by a scheme supplier (this might be a producer, retailer or distributor) by way of sale or in connection with the supply of goods or services pays the supplier an amount (the deposit) and a person who gives a deposit item to a scheme collector (this might be a retailer or other return point) is entitled to be paid a refund in respect of that item. This subsection and paragraph 4(2) of the Schedule describe the functions of a deposit scheme administrator, including the powers for a scheme administrator to interact, engage and make payments to a scheme administrator established for a deposit scheme in Scotland.