The small proportion of women running companies in Scotland must be addressed as a matter of urgency, wellbeing economy secretary Màiri McAllan has told business leaders.

Addressing Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Business Awards, Ms McAllan said the fact that only just over one-in-five of Scottish small and medium-sized companies were headed by women should “provoke us to act”.

The Small Business Survey Scotland 2022-23 this week reported that 22% of small and medium-sized enterprises are women-led. This is higher than comparable figures for England (18%), Wales (19%) and Northern Ireland (15%).

The Cabinet Secretary reaffirmed the Scottish Government’s commitment to address the gender gap with almost £3 million investment over two years. Speaking a week before International Women’s Day and one year since the publication of Pathways: a new approach for women in entrepreneurship, Ms McAllan said:

“There is an enduring gender gap in entrepreneurial participation in Scotland and we must address that.

“Only one in five Scottish businesses are led by women, and startups founded by women only receive 2% of investment capital. This should provoke us to act.

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“This financial year we awarded £1.3 million to 20 programmes across the country through our Pathways Pre-Start Fund with a further £1.5 million allocated to further implementation of the Pathways recommendations in the next financial year.

“Scotland should be a great place for us all to do business, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or background.”