The following message was distributed via Voluntary Arts Scotland's e-newsletter
earlier
this week. The SAU wholly endorses this campaign and urges all members to write
to their
MSPs on the matter, especially in our post-Olympics, post-Commonwealth Games
funding climate where the arts sector looks set to suffer enormous losses.

Act Now To Secure £40m for the Third Sector - posted 20.1.2008

Incredible though it may seem, there is currently around £40m sitting in dormant
bank
and building society accounts in Scotland. The Scottish Government is currently
discussing
how best to spend these unclaimed assets (i.e. money which has remained
untouched for
at least 15 years) - but recent activity in the Parliament has sent alarm bells
ringing in the
Third Sector.

Both the previous Labour/Lib-Dem coalition and the current Scottish Government
had
earmarked the money to be spread amongst various good causes in Scotland. They
had
also promised to consult with all relevant stakeholders before allocating the
funds.
However, a motion tabled in the Scottish Parliament last week proposed
distributing the
funds without the promised consultation. An attempt was also made by Lib-Dem
MSP,
Jeremy Purvis to ensure that all the money from dormant bank accounts in
Scotland is
allocated solely to youth services.

Whilst we would agree that youth organisations and services have a strong case
to make
for accessing funds, so do many other groups and organisations. Particularly
since this
comes at a time when many organisations are faced with financial difficulties
exacerbated
by the drain on the national lottery by the 2012 Olympics.

The Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations [SCVO] and Voluntary Arts
Scotland is
therefore urging people to contact their MSP immediately, to ask them to push
for a
consultation on this matter. The motion is set for debate again sometime this
week (w/c
20 Jan), so the time to act is now. Organisations across the third sector have a
right to
express their opinion on how this substantial chunk of money will be spent.

To ensure the promised consultation goes ahead, please e-mail your MSP as soon
as
possible (you can locate their details by visiting
www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/msplocator.htm). You can also write
to
the SCVO expressing your concern by e-mailing peter.mccoll@... (please
also
copy Peter into any correspondence sent to your MSP, so they can monitor the
level of
activity this has generated).

Voluntary Arts Scotland will be supporting a full consultation on dormant bank
accounts.
We have already contributed to the initial UK consultation on unclaimed assets,
where we
made a strong case for why arts and crafts groups need to be considered as
recipients of
this fund. You can read about this at www.vascotland.org.uk/12499