UNISON General Secretary calls on Scottish Parliament to scrap PFI

Rodney Bickerstaffe, General Secretary of UNISON, Scotland's largest union, has called for the phasing out of the Government's controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Speaking to the union's City of Edinburgh Branch AGM , Mr Bickerstaffe announced the prospective publication of UNISONScotland's Manifesto Briefing Serving Scotland's Taxpayers. This is the next step in the union's Serving Scotland campaign, which argues for priority for public services in the Scottish Parliament

"Scotland's public services should be democratically accountable, best quality and delivered by a public service team," said Mr Bickerstaffe. "PFI cannot deliver on these criteria and should be scrapped. We are calling on the new Scottish Parliament to draw a line under this system and to develop new ways of funding essential service facilities."

"Serving Scotland's Taxpayers makes clear arguments for changes to this costly and secretive method of funding our public services and we will be campaigning for these changes with all the prospective MSP's, political parties and other Scottish organisations."

Edinburgh has two 'flagship' PFI schemes, a private consortium has been awarded the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and the city's schools are proposed for private takeover. UNISON has already pointed out that the extra cost - 6million - of the Royal Infirmary contract is the equivalent of nearly 16,000 day case operations.

The union's Serving Scotland campaign is planned to run up to the Scottish Parliament elections an May 6. It argues for services that give people a say in their running, are the best quality possible, and are delivered by a public service team. Mr Bickerstaffe congratulated the Edinburgh Branch for taking this message to heart.

"It is good to see that this branch has taken the lead amongst Scottish Branches", he said "and produced its own definition of ‘best value' in local services, which embody the principles set out by our campaign. This is the sort of positive lead we want and I wish them success in negotiating agreement with the employer."