Former First Minister Henry McLeish today called for a more federal approach to government within the UK.

Mr McLeish, who piloted the Scotland Act through Westminster, said increased autonomy would help stem "grief and anger" from English voters and head off Nationalist gains.

He said England had been ignored under the devolved arrangement.

"They need a voice," he said. "But that voice has to come from the Union, it has to come from Westminster, it has to come from London.

"But on the other hand, asymmetrical devolution I don't think will be sustained.

"We must move towards some balanced framework, a quasi-federal framework, where it can make some sense rather than the English feeling aggrieved.

"At the end of the day, their grief and their anger spills over on to us."

He was giving evidence to the Calman Commission on the future of devolution, 10 years after the Scottish Parliament was established.

Mr McLeish indicated support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's suggestion that spending in Scotland could be linked to economic performance, rather than from a block grant.

"There's no link between the productivity and competitiveness, the growth, the success or otherwise, in the Scottish economy," he said.

The Calman Commission, he added, was the first real opportunity for a debate on spending and tax in Scotland.

But he said tax-altering powers in the Scotland Act of 3p were a "real problem".

"In the current constitutional context it will never be used," he said.

"Clearly if you move towards a situation where there's full fiscal freedom or independence that makes a difference.

"We imposed through a referendum a tax measure that, on reflection, I don't think can ever be used."

He continued: "It's not a point of renegotiating the Scotland Act but it's actually trying to get us powers that make sense. I don't think the current plus or minus three makes sense.

"The plus or minus three is a real, real problem now and should, in a way, be taken aside because it does not contribute anything."

Earlier the Calman commission heard from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) that some powers should go back to London.

ICAS chief executive Anton Colella said: "When it comes to corporate insolvency, we're clearly of the view that this should become wholly reserved again, as before 1998, when it did work very well."

The law in practice is not "very different" north and south of the border, Mr Colella said.

"However, there is very little corporate insolvency expertise in the civil service in Scotland," he added. "That's at a critical point, given the current economic climate."

Former judge Sir David Edward said aspects of corporate insolvency, particularly floating charges and receivers, were part of Scots law and questioned whether the expertise would exist in Westminster to deal with this.

The SNP Government is conducting its own consultation on an independence referendum, called the national conversation.