diff --git a/ora/xml_util_pkg.pkb b/ora/xml_util_pkg.pkb
index 805fad8..4071408 100755
--- a/ora/xml_util_pkg.pkb
+++ b/ora/xml_util_pkg.pkb
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ as
   Who     Date        Description
   ------  ----------  -------------------------------------
   FDL     03.05.2007  Created
+  JMW     07.11.2025  Added get_unescaped_string()
+                       so that special characters
+                       in the return value are not escaped
 
   */
   
@@ -159,6 +162,76 @@ begin
 end get_string;
 
 
+function get_unescaped_string( p_escaped in varchar2 ) return varchar2
+as
+  l_returnvalue  string_util_pkg.t_max_pl_varchar2;
+  l_pos          pls_integer;
+  l_end          pls_integer;
+  l_entity       varchar2(50);
+  l_code         pls_integer;
+  l_char         varchar2(10);
+begin
+  
+  /*
+ 
+  Purpose:      get unescaped string
+ 
+  Remarks:      
+ 
+  Who     Date        Description
+  ------  ----------  --------------------------------
+  JMW     07.11.2025  Created
+ 
+  */
+  
+  l_returnvalue := p_escaped;
+  
+  -- Replace standard XML entities
+  l_returnvalue := replace(l_returnvalue, '&', '&');
+  l_returnvalue := replace(l_returnvalue, '&lt;', '<');
+  l_returnvalue := replace(l_returnvalue, '&gt;', '>');
+  l_returnvalue := replace(l_returnvalue, '&quot;', '"');
+  l_returnvalue := replace(l_returnvalue, '&apos;', '''');
+  
+  -- Handle numeric character references (decimal and hex)
+  l_pos := instr(l_returnvalue, '&#');
+  while l_pos > 0 loop
+    l_end := instr(l_returnvalue, ';', l_pos);
+    exit when l_end = 0;
+    
+    l_entity := substr(l_returnvalue, l_pos + 2, l_end - l_pos - 2);
+    
+    begin
+      if lower(substr(l_entity, 1, 1)) = 'x' then
+        -- Hexadecimal reference
+        l_code := to_number(substr(l_entity, 2), 'xxxx');
+      else
+        -- Decimal reference
+        l_code := to_number(l_entity);
+      end if;
+      
+      -- Convert code point to character safely
+      if l_code between 0 and 255 then
+        l_char := chr(l_code);
+      else
+        -- Use Unicode escape for high code points
+        l_char := unistr('\'+lpad(to_char(l_code, 'xxxx'),4,'0')); --'
+      end if;
+      
+      -- Replace the entity in the string
+      l_returnvalue := substr(l_returnvalue, 1, l_pos - 1) || l_char || substr(l_returnvalue, l_end + 1);
+    exception
+      when others then
+      -- If numeric conversion fails, leave entity as-is
+      l_end := l_pos;
+    end;
+    l_pos := instr(l_returnvalue, '&#', l_pos + length(l_char));
+  end loop;
+  
+  return l_returnvalue;
+end get_unescaped_string;
+
+
 function tag_str (p_str in varchar2,
                   p_tag_name in varchar2) return varchar2
 as
@@ -303,6 +376,9 @@ begin
   Who     Date        Description
   ------  ----------  -------------------------------------
   MBR     07.12.2010  Created
+  JMW     07.11.2025  Added get_unescaped_string()
+                       so that special characters
+                       in the return value are not escaped
   
   */
   
@@ -315,7 +391,7 @@ begin
       l_returnvalue := null;
   end;
   
-  l_returnvalue := nvl(l_returnvalue, p_default_value);
+  l_returnvalue := nvl(get_unescaped_string(l_returnvalue), p_default_value);
   
   return l_returnvalue;
 
@@ -339,11 +415,14 @@ begin
   Who     Date        Description
   ------  ----------  --------------------------------
   MBR     27.01.2011  Created
+  JMW     07.11.2025  Added get_unescaped_string()
+                       so that special characters
+                       in the return value are not escaped
  
   */
 
   begin 
-    l_returnvalue := p_xml.extract(p_xpath, p_namespace).getstringval();
+    l_returnvalue := get_unescaped_string(p_xml.extract(p_xpath, p_namespace).getstringval());
   exception
     when others then
       l_returnvalue := p_default_value;
@@ -426,3 +505,4 @@ end extract_value_number;
 
 end xml_util_pkg;
 /
+
diff --git a/ora/xml_util_pkg.pks b/ora/xml_util_pkg.pks
index 15e2d6e..03ef838 100755
--- a/ora/xml_util_pkg.pks
+++ b/ora/xml_util_pkg.pks
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ as
   Who     Date        Description
   ------  ----------  -------------------------------------
   FDL     03.05.2007  Created
+  JMW     07.11.2025  Added get_unescaped_string()
+                       so that special characters
+                       in the return value are not escaped
 
   */
   
@@ -37,12 +40,15 @@ as
                        p_name in varchar2,
                        p_regional_settings in t_regional_settings := null,
                        p_raise_error_if_parse_error in boolean := false) return number;
-
+  
   -- return a string from DOM node
   function get_string (p_node in dbms_xmldom.domnode,
                        p_name in varchar2,
                        p_trim_str in boolean := true) return varchar2;
-                       
+  
+  -- get unescaped string
+  function get_unescaped_string( p_escaped in varchar2 ) return varchar2;
+  
   -- build tagged string
   function tag_str (p_str in varchar2,
                     p_tag_name in varchar2) return varchar2;
@@ -81,3 +87,5 @@ as
 end xml_util_pkg;
 /
 
+
+