The Liberal Democrats will play a leading role in the campaign for more powers for the Scottish Parliament.
The case for strengthening the Parliament was set out in a speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton by Nicol Stephen, the party's leader in Scotland.
In his speech Mr Stephen said:
"This is set to be an important week in Scotland's political future. The first meeting of the leaders of the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives to review the powers of the Parliament is set to take place on Wednesday.
"The Liberal Democrats are determined to lead the debate for more powers for the Scottish Parliament. All the other parties are moving our way. Only the Liberal Democrats have consistently campaigned for more powers for the Parliament – but not independence.
"There should certainly be a direct Scottish Parliament role on this issue – perhaps through the creation of a special parliamentary committee. The momentum, the drive and the organisation of this step-up in the campaign for more powers for the Parliament should be housed in the Scottish Parliament itself. The Liberal Democrats have always supported the creation of a second constitutional convention to review the powers of the Parliament after the first two terms.
"The convention or commission should be led by the Parliament. It is important that business leaders and community representatives should be involved, but the formal route should be from, through and back to the Scottish Parliament.
"Westminster should have a key role as well. London must learn the lesson from the Tories in the 1980s and 1990s: there is an easier way to do this and a harder way. Westminster should not be a roadblock to new powers, including tax powers, being given to the Scottish Parliament. MPs should take this chance to join in and be wholeheartedly part of this new initiative.
"The Liberal Democrats are gearing up to take this opportunity to build and strengthen the Scottish Parliament very seriously. We produced the Steel Commission report which has set the pace on the debate. We were the only party to campaign for more powers for the Parliament in May's elections. We are now gearing up to make a major commitment to this new initiative. I have spoken to Lord Steel and other senior colleagues to get their early input to get the pace going.
"It is wrong for any parliament simply to be handed a cheque for £30 billion a year and to be asked to decide how to spend it. There is growing agreement amongst senior figures in all the main parties that the Scottish Parliament should have greater tax raising powers. This should include detailed work on corporation tax, income tax and oil and gas revenues. A sensible solution would involve assigning some of the oil revenues to Scotland with the balance being assigned to Westminster.
"We want a stronger Scottish Parliament; a Parliament with revenue raising responsibilities, with the greater powers needed to build the Scottish economy and boost Scottish jobs. We can't go on with a Parliament that just spends money given to it by another government."