The Department is basing the design of the deposit return scheme on small trials and international experience, but a lack of like-for-like comparators may make it difficult to get the UK’s scheme right. The National Audit Office recommended the Department considers piloting the scheme due to uncertainties around the scale of the benefits to ensure it is value for money. The impact assessment for the deposit return scheme showed that more than 90% of the benefits of the scheme are based on an estimate of the value to society of reducing litter, and this is inherently difficult to determine. The Department does not plan to conduct a pilot of the deposit return scheme due to the practical challenges of setting it up. It plans to use the information it has on small trials combined with looking at the experiences of other countries who have implemented similar schemes. However, the Department accepts the international comparators are not directly comparable to the UK, for example some countries do not have kerbside collections which recycle some of the same waste. Recommendation 3: Alongside its Treasury Minute response, the Department should write to the committee with an update on how it is drawing on international experience to inform the design and roll-out of the deposit return scheme. This should include commentary on what lessons there are from countries that have introduced deposit return schemes on top of kerbside collections.