Substantial changes to the way in which PFI is organised in Scotland have been announced in what is widely seen as a bid to assuage the scheme's critics.
Scottish Parliament finance minister Jack McConnell announced four changes in the way in which contracts are issued ahead of a Scottish Parliament debate on PFI.
In the first opposition debate of the Parliament, the Scottish National Party sought to 'condemn the privatisation' of public services through PFI.
Mr McConnell said the SNP was treating the issue 'as a political football' and its proposals would jeopardise the future of eight hospital PFI projects.
MSPs voted in favour of an 'amendment' to the SNP motion, supporting public-private partnerships as 'one of the ways used to increase innovation and investment in public services where this approach represents best value'.
The changes mean that:
In future, assets will revert to public ownership at no extra cost.
No surplus land will be included in deals.
The pensions of staff transferring from public to private employers will be safeguarded.
There will be more public information about the contracts.
However, Mr McConnell confirmed that existing PFI contracts would operate under the old agreements.
The move was welcomed by Pat Frost, acting director of the NHS Confederation in Scotland, who said: 'I think this goes some way to answering the critics of PFI.
'Everybody sees there are flaws with this system, but nobody is coming up with anything better.'
Unison remains bitterly opposed to the deals. Scottish secretary Matt Smith said: 'Anything that takes steps to retain public assets in the public sector and protect hard-won conditions has to be welcomed.
'But what we want is best value public services and the retention of public staff in the public sector and we will be continuing our campaign to reject PFI.'
Mr Smith added: 'PFI is still a bad way of financing public services. It will still cost the taxpayer more.
'It will still break up the team delivering Scotland's services and there are still other, better ways of accessing public sector borrowing that could help.
'We look forward to opening discussions with the government and the Scottish Parliament on our campaign to reject PFI.'
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