12Carer information strategies
(1)The Scottish Ministers may require any Health Board to prepare and submit to them a strategy (a “carer information strategy”) for—
(a)informing carers who appear to the Board to be persons who may have rights under section 12AA of the 1968 Act or section 24 of the 1995 Act that they may have such rights; and
(b)ensuring that information about such rights is available free of charge to carers.
(2)In requiring a Health Board to prepare a carer information strategy, the Scottish Ministers may specify—
(a)the date by which the strategy is to be submitted under subsection (1) above, or the period within which it is to be prepared under that subsection;
(b)the form and extent of the strategy and (subject to subsection (1) above) the matters which it is to include;
(c)the consultation that the Health Board must undertake in preparing the strategy; and
(d)the period to which the strategy is to relate.
(3)A Health Board must provide a copy of their carer information strategy to any person who requests it.
(4)A Health Board—
(a)may at any time; and
(b)must, when required to do so by the Scottish Ministers,
review their carer information strategy and prepare and submit to the Scottish Ministers a revised carer information strategy.
(5)In this section, references to “carers” are to persons who—
(a)care for persons who are patients (“patient” having the same meaning as in the 1978 Act); or
(b)are patients who care for other persons (whether or not those other persons are themselves patients),
this subsection being construed in accordance with the definition, in section 2(28) of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 (asp 8), of “a person who cares for”.