The numbers are based on the number of businesses opening accounts with Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank, TSB and the Royal Bank of Scotland over the time period.

The number of new start-ups is down 0.6 per cent from 3,179 in the second quarter of 2014, but up 4.2 per cent from the first quarter of the year.

The number of sole traders starting business fell sharply to 1,104 from 1,248 in the second quarter of 2014, possibly reflecting improvements in the labour market.

Compared to the second quarter of 2014, there were fewer construction start-ups - down to 416 from 426 - but a fairly consistent number of manufacturing start-ups - down to 183 from 184.

There were 1,900 company start-up, up from 1,746 in the same period of 2014 and 1,774 in the first three months of this year.