The Scottish Government is to write off around £150m of debt owed by NHS boards.

The move announced by health secretary Jeane Freeman is part of a new financial framework drawn up by ministers to help deliver health and social care reforms.

Several boards have received loans from the Scottish Government - known as brokerage - in recent years to fill funding gaps.

Ms Freeman said ministers would not seek to recoup the money given to territorial boards over the past five years, enabling them to start with a "clean slate" from 2019/20.

Under the new framework, boards will be required to break even over a three-year period, rather than annually.

In addition, each year the boards will also be able to over or under-spend by up to 1% of their budgets.

Ms Freeman told MSPs: "In return for their efforts to deliver the reforms for the future, I am facilitating a new three-year financial planning and performance framework for our NHS territorial boards,"

"For this new deal to be successful, I believe it needs a new start."

She continued: "So to give all our territorial boards clear ground to move forward in that three-year planning cycle, I will not seek to recover NHS territorial boards' outstanding brokerage, the expenditure incurred by territorial boards over the last five years which has been above their budget.

Ms Freeman said the new framework makes the "perhaps bold assumption" that Scotland will receive a further £3.3bn of funding for the health service by 2023/24 as a result of increases in spending south of the border.

However Conservative MSP Miles Briggs said Scottish ministers are "short-changing" the NHS"at a time of record UK Government health funding".

The Health Secretary responded by saying spending in Scotland is 7.2% higher than in the UK as a whole.

Labour's Jenny Marra questioned whether brokerage paid out in this financial year would also be written off, with NHS Tayside carrying a projected deficit of £18.7m.

Ms Freeman said: "All health boards will start with a clean slate from the year 2019/20."