To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the cost of introducing a deposit and return scheme for bottles; how such a scheme would be applied; and how it would work in practice. (240896)

DEFRA has not recently estimated the cost of introducing a deposit and return system for bottles. A study undertaken for DEFRA in 2004-05 estimated that the annual operating costs for such a system would be in the region of £100 million. We recently commissioned a study by Environmental Resources Management which looked into the advantages and disadvantages of deposit systems and the issues that need to be addressed in setting up such systems. This report will be published shortly.