FINANCE Secretary Kate Forbes has been told to end the “secrecy” around how much businesses are getting in emergency Covid support.

The Scottish Tories said the figures must be published on a weekly basis, to cut through the confusion over a jumble of schemes at various stages of delivery.

Previous Treasury-funded, but council-run, business grants have already been published weekly.

Ms Forbes this week announced a new £185m package for targeted Covid support across a wife range of sectors, including taxi drivers, arts venues and travel agents.

There will also be one-off payments to hospitality businesses of £2000 or £3000 in January to help them deal with the traditional post-Christmas dip in trade.

The measures had a frosty response from business leaders.

The Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland said it created “a myriad of schemes at various stages of delivery, with much of the cash unlikely to reach firms until the New Year”.

The Scottish Licensed Trade Association said the paltry one-off sums were an “insult” to the industry in light of the “cataclysmic devastation” it was facing.

Scottish Chambers of Commerce said the £185m, while welcome, was “cold comfort to many businesses who have so little cash left they have only weeks to survive”.

It added: “For many, January will be too late to save business owners, their families and their employees from economic ruin.”

Tory MSP Maurice Golden said any support for our businesses was welcome, but the SNP must not shroud vital schemes in secrecy.

“We must see an urgent guarantee that weekly data will be published on exactly where this funding has gone and how quickly it has got to businesses that are crying out for support,” he said.

“They routinely published business grants data earlier this year, but this is now not happening.

“The concern is that SNP Ministers have got lost in too many schemes and are not on top of ensuring money is getting to where it is needed most.

“The UK Government have made it possible for jobs and livelihoods to be protected across Scotland with almost £10 billion worth of support. The SNP must not leave us in the dark as to how they’ve spent that funding.”

Labour said Ms Forbes should “come clean” over what proportion of business support funds had made it into the hands of employers.

The party said the Government must also ensure firms got urgent support before new funds became available in January to stop them going to the wall over Christmas.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “The SNP simply cannot abandon Scotland’s businesses and the thousands of the workers that they employ to a winter of closures, unemployment and misery.

“There is no sense in deferring support when thousands of businesses are at risk of going to the wall now. Business owners and the workers they employ haven’t the luxury to move at the languid pace of the SNP – they need help now.

“The SNP must also, as a matter of urgency, make public the proportion of business support funds that have actually made it into the hands of businesses. There is no point grandstanding over the level of support you are offering if it is sitting, collecting dust, in the Scottish government’s bank account.

“Businesses will be the dynamos of our economic recovery, but unless the SNP pulls the finger out now we will be left with a skeleton economy and spiralling unemployment. It’s time for action.”

The Scottish Government said: “We are committed to transparency, and full information about grants paid under the Restrictions Fund which closed last month and the new Strategic Framework Business Fund (SFBF) which replaced it will be published shortly.

“Thereafter we’ll publish regular statistical updates on the SFBF and on the £185m package of extra winter support for business announced this week.

“As the SFBF is paid four-weekly, there would be no merit in publishing weekly data for it.”