Chamber and committees

The Executive has already advised the Dunaskin Industrial Heritage Museum that it will not provide resources to keep the museum financially viable. In supporting the Scottish Mining Museum, we made it clear that the resources were given in exceptional circumstances and should not be seen as setting a precedent by any other museums or the Scottish Mining Museum. The pressures in the museums and galleries sector were recognised in the National Cultural Strategy and further detailed consideration is being given to them.

The Scottish Executive grant of £90,000 over six months announced on 16 June was awarded to support the running costs of the Scottish Mining Museum. The museum could not cover the costs from other sources and the grant was to allow the working group to consider its review of the long-term future of the Scottish Mining Museum. It is channelled through the Scottish Museums Council and is subject to the usual conditions of scrutiny of grants.

The information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Office incurred running costs of £170,533 in responding to the Braer incident in January 1993 but did not make any financial contributions to third parties. The total Government claim in respect of Braer was £3.5m but this was withdrawn in 1999. No payments in respect of other incidents have been made.

A copy of the report The Environmental Impact of the Wreck of the Braer prepared by the Ecological Steering Group on the oil spill in Shetland and the Government's response to it prepared by the Scottish Office Environment Department in July 1995 is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

There is currently no upper limit for grant applications to the Scottish Arts Council for capital projects. The criteria are detailed in the Council Guidelines published for each of its capital schemes.

The details of each project funded by the Scottish Arts Council are published in its annual reports, which are now laid before the Scottish Parliament.

Carers who look after people with mental illness can be at a disadvantage to other carers. Mentally ill people might be more prone to confusion than other vulnerable people and this combined with possible negative reactions to prescribed drugs may lead to challenging behaviour. Problems in addition to mental illness, e.g. physical disability can exacerbate a mentally ill persons state of mind.

Under the Strategy for Cares in Scotland, legislative proposals will be drawn up to effect better provision of services for all carers, including those who look after mentally ill people. The Framework for Mental Health Services in Scotland encourages all the care partner agencies involved in mental health to include carers and service users in the strategic planning process of the mental health services provided in their local area. The Mental Illness Specific Grant scheme provides funding via local authorities to local organisations offering services to carers of people who are mentally ill

Under Mental Illness Specific Grant, support is given to eight projects which provide specific support to carers, as follows:

Local Authority	Project	£ 1998-99	£ 1999-2000	£ 2000-01
Aberdeen City	NSF Carers	13,709	13,709	13,709
Aberdeenshire	NSF Carers	14,703	14,703	14,703
Angus	Carer support	33,729	33,729	33,729
Dumfries & Galloway	Alzheimer Scotland Carer Support Service	32,000	31,712	31,712
Fife	NSF Carers	29,289	28,557	28,716
Edinburgh City	Care for Carers- Saturday Breaks	7,720	7,720	7,720
Glasgow City	East End Community Carers	21,560	20,925	20,694
South Lanarkshire	Rutherglen/Toryglen Carers Association	67,245	78,066	78,090

Note: Funded 70:30 Scottish Executive/Local Authorities. The figures refer to 100% funding.

In addition, the Scottish Executive offers national carers organisations funds towards their core administration costs, and for specific initiatives. These organisations offer advice and support to carers across Scotland. The information requested is shown in the following table:

Organisation	1998-99 £	1999-2000 £	2000-01 £
Carers National Association	106,000	109,180	109,180
Crossroads	41,008	42,238	60,088
Shared Care Scotland	53,157	71,752	71,752

Funding Source: Sections 9 and 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

Funding is also provided by health boards and local authorities from their general allocations to meet their statutory requirements to provide services for people with mental health problems. This includes support and assistance to carers: such funding is not separately identified.

It is not known how much public money is saved through informal caring of people with a mental illness or who are vulnerable in some other way. However, the Strategy for Carers in Scotland recognises that informal carers make a significant contribution to relieving pressure on public services.