Two-thirds of entrepreneurial businesses in Scotland expect conditions for growth to improve in the coming quarter, though UK-wide the figure was 78 per cent.

The finding comes from the inaugural Growth Climate Index produced by the Business Growth Fund, a new indicator of business confidence based on the opinions of directors working across the UK's faster-growing small and mid-sized businesses.

Concerns are running high over the possibility of a second independence referendum, with 85 per cent of Scottish respondents saying another vote would be bad for British business, a view supported by 79 per cent throughout the UK.

Around four-fifths of the directors everywhere believe the UK's membership of the European Union is good for businesses

The state of the economy is the biggest worry for entrepreneurs in Scotland, with 22 per cent citing macro-economic factors - such as the price of oil - as their main concern, compared with 15 per cent for the UK as a whole.

Recruiting staff with the right skills was the main challenge for 21 per cent of Scots, compared with 27 per cent across the UK, while access to finance was the biggest worry for 17 per cent in both Scotland and the UK.

Upgrading infrastructure ranked first among issues that need to be prioritised by the government, followed by a desire to see simplified employment policies and an improvement in the quality of apprenticeships to make them more attractive to businesses and young people.