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I understand that Scottish Borders Council is considering a range of measures to deal with the deficit identified in its education budget. Until this process is complete it will not be possible for the council to state for certain what the impact will be on any specific part of the education programme. The Executive expects that Scottish Borders Council will do everything it can to minimise the effect on pupils' education.

I am still waiting for Scottish Borders Council to publish their allocations from the £416,000, which was designed to benefit all schools in the Borders.

We have not conducted a specific audit of respite facilities. However, our policies on a number of fronts emphasise the importance of improving the quality and availability of respite care (or short break services), including our Carers Strategy for Scotland, the Learning Disability Review, the work of the Joint Futures Unit and the package of measures to improve support to people at home announced in Susan Deacon's statement of 5 October 2000. We have developed these policies in consultation with users of services and their carers, and their views and experiences of existing services have had a major influence on the directions we are taking. We will be monitoring closely the impact of these policies on short break services in Scotland.

Within the Scottish Executive Health Department, the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health services and patient care within the NHS in Scotland and, as such, is the main departmental funder of NHS-related research. CSO spent £46,021 on research into the treatment of dementia in 1999-2000, £110,677 in 2000-01 and expects to spend £210,683 in 2001-02. There was no expenditure by CSO on research into the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease in 1999-2000 and 2000-01 but CSO expects to spend £3,200 in 2001-02.CSO would be pleased to consider funding further research proposals into the treatment of Alzheimer's and other dementia illnesses which would be subject to the usual peer group and committee review.

The Accounts Commission for Scotland has the overall responsibility for issues concerning the accounts of local authorities in Scotland, including the responsibility for the appointment of auditors. The Controller of Audit may decide to make a report to the Accounts Commission on a particular matter arising out of or in connection with the accounts of any local authority, or the Accounts Commission may ask him to produce such reports as it requires. This is a matter for them.Any report made by the Controller of Audit to the Accounts Commission shall be copied to any local authority named in the report and to any other person as the Controller of Audit or the Accounts Commission think fit. The local authority would be obliged to pass copies of the report to each member of the authority and make additional copies available for public inspection.

The council have not published the necessary information by 29 June 2001, the date mentioned in Circular 5/2000 as the latest date by which information should be published. I expect that information to be made available as soon as possible.

The circular does not identify specific penalties.

Since 1999-2000, £4 million has been earmarked each year within the total provision for local authority non-housing capital for these schemes. An additional £15.5 million was secured for the Spending Review period, bringing the total available for 2001-04 to £27.5 million.

The Scottish Executive has not published any further research on very sheltered housing since its 1991 report entitled The Housing Needs of Elderly People in Scotland and is not aware of any other research on this specific area of housing. There are no plans to commission any further reports at this time while we consider the various elements of care mosaic through the work of the Care Development Group, the Regulation of Care Bill, the consultation on the Long Term Care Bill and the implementation of Supporting People. All have implications about how and where care is offered to older and disabled people and will inform expectations about future needs for sheltered and very sheltered housing.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-16415 on 3 July 2001.