The only way I can think you can do this is by manually copying those values out of the "parent" variables before you enter the narrower scope. There's no way to refer to identically named variables of higher scope. If you created a variable at the Package level, and made an expression on it that gave it the value of "System::ContainerStartTime", then used it inside a Foreach Loop, I don't believe you'll get the Package's Container Start Time... but you'd have to try that to confirm. So, the only rock-solid way I can think of is to make a variable at the package level, and use a Script Task to copy the value from the Package's ContainerStartTime (or whatever other variable(s)) into your new variable. You can then use that variable as you wish. Not a great answer, I know. Talk to me now on