Figures from Scotland's Regional Selective Assistance fund show that ink giant HP snaffled almost half the total cash given out in the last quarter.

Between July and September, Scottish Enterprise via RSA gave out £14.8m. HP Enterprise Services UK Ltd got £7m of this to create 721 jobs in Erskine.

In total, the £14.8m grants will create 1,447 jobs and keep another 470 posts safe.

Scottish manufacturing firms, 16 of them, collected £2.5m to create or safeguard 368 jobs.

The Scottish government has been criticised for handing money to HP, and other "footloose overseas corporations".

In May last year HP cut 850 people making storage devices and servers when it shifted production to the Czech Republic.

After HP, the next biggest payout of £1.7m which went to Vertex, which promised to create 368 back-office jobs in Glasgow, the Herald reports. ®