The Deposit Scheme for Drinks Containers (England and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2025

Registration fees for scheme producers

63.—(1) The deposit management organisation may, for each scheme year, charge any scheme producer that is registered with it under regulation 11 during all or part of that scheme year, a fee.

(2) The fee charged under paragraph (1) (the “registration fee”) may be used for the purposes of meeting any or all of the following costs—

(a) the NEA costs, and

(b) the costs incurred by the deposit management organisation in exercising its functions under or in connection with the Scheme.

(3) The amount of the registration fee payable by a scheme producer is the aggregate of the following amounts—

(a) the producer amount for containers made wholly or mainly from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic (if any),

(b) the producer amount for containers made wholly or mainly from steel (if any), and

(c) the producer amount for containers made wholly or mainly from aluminium (if any).

(4) The producer amount for containers made wholly or mainly from each type of in-scope material must be calculated as follows (and may be £0)—

where—

“A” is the fee for the relevant scheme year for a container made wholly or mainly from the particular in-scope material (the “per container fee”), and

“B” is the total number of containers made wholly or mainly from that in-scope material which the deposit management organisation expects the relevant scheme producer to supply to scheme consumers in the relevant scheme year.

(5) The per container fee for a container made wholly or mainly from a particular in-scope material—

(a) must be the same for all registered scheme producers, and

(b) may be £0.

(6) The deposit management organisation must, for the purposes of determining the registration fee, have regard to the likely value, or if known the actual value, of each type of in-scope material which the deposit management organisation expects to be recycled from all of the refund items which are collected by, or returned, to the deposit management organisation in the relevant scheme year.

(7) The per container fee for one in-scope material must not subsidise any of the relevant costs from any other in-scope material.

(8) For the purposes of paragraph (7), “the relevant costs” for an in-scope material are the costs which the deposit management organisation expects to incur in the exercise of its functions under, or in connection with, the Scheme in relation to the collection, processing and recycling of refund items made wholly or mainly from that material.

(9) The deposit management organisation must—

(a) keep the registration fee under review;

(b) carry out a full review of the operation of the registration fee at least every 12 months, and

(c) publish the registration fee in such manner as it considers appropriate to bring it to the attention of scheme producers.

(10) Before determining, or re-determining, the registration fee, the deposit management organisation must consult—

(a) scheme producers, and

(b) such other persons (if any) as the deposit management organisation considers appropriate,

and have regard to the views expressed in responses to the consultation.

(11) The deposit management organisation may require the registration fee to be payable at times or intervals and by means specified by the deposit management organisation.

(12) The deposit management organisation may make different payment arrangements for different cases or circumstances and in particular—

(a) must ensure that any registration fee charged to a scheme producer in accordance with paragraph (1) does not include a fee in respect of a container from a container drink which is a registered low volume product during the scheme year concerned;

(b) may make arrangements for registration fees to be reduced, waived or refunded (whether in whole or in part).