Representatives from the UK’s independent breweries have today called for a delay to the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), said The Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA). 

Asking for at least a year’s delay, breweries cited a “shocking” lack of details, leaving them unprepared for the scheme, which is set to be implemented in October 2027. 

SIBA said that producers, especially small producers, need as much as 18-24 months to successfully prepare for the scheme, making the current 13-month period ineffective. 

In a letter to ministers, SIBA described how it feared a “Scottish-style meltdown” of the DRS, pointing to Wales’s lack of an administrator and lack of guidance on glass in the scheme as the primary issues. 

Pointing to the Scottish DRS, which collapsed in 2023, SIBA emphasised the importance of full interoperability between the four nations. 

Andy Slee, CEO of SIBA, said: “It feels like déjà vu on the Deposit Return Schemes, where a lack of clarity and different rules across the UK doomed the scheme in Scotland before it could even launch.   

“We want to see a DRS that works for all producers and consumers and the simplest way to do that would be to have the same scope and the same rules across the UK.” 

Malcolm Herbert, owner of Core of the Poodle Brewery, based in Pembrokeshire, added: “We’ve been trying to get clarity on how the DRS is going to actually operate but the Welsh Government has been dragging its feet on the appointment of an administrator and hasn’t clarified how glass in the scheme would possibly work. 

“The only way forward is to pause it for at least a year to give all four nations the extra time it needs to sort out the chaotic rules. If it doesn’t then 90 Welsh breweries will be negatively impacted, won’t be able to compete across the UK and beer consumers will lose out.”