NEW legislation should be brought in to overhaul Scotland's policing and return local accountability, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said.

The party insisted ministers needed to "go back to the drawing board" over their plans to merge British Transport Police (BTP) and Police Scotland.

And it called for an independent commission to propose legislative solutions "to repair the damage caused by the SNP's botched police centralisation".

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said he was pleased plans to integrate railway policing had been put on hold – but urged the SNP to rip up its blueprints and "start all over again".

He said: "We wanted the British Transport Police, the accountability of it, to be devolved. It doesn't automatically mean that you have to have a separate service.

"You can actually have cooperation across the United Kingdom – something the SNP find difficult to do, but [which] could have been part of this proposal if they had taken time to consult.

"It's only their own fault that they are [experiencing] the problems they are in just now.

"They have had to put it on pause – they've understood there are significant issues at the heart of this.

"I'm pleased they have put it on pause. I think it would be wise to go back to the drawing board and start all over again."

Referring to the centralisation of police and fire services, he added: "We need an independent commission to look at how the democratic structures are working."

The party said the commission would help repair the "damage" done by the creation of Police Scotland "through new legislation, ensuring power is shared and that effective, democratic governance arrangements exist".

Mr Rennie was speaking during a policing debate at the Scottish Lib Dem conference in Aviemore, where he later hit out at the SNP's handling of the NHS and its focus on another independence referendum.

SNP ministers wanted to integrate BTP with the single force by spring next year, but were forced to scrap the deadline amid concerns over finances, staffing and resources.

In his keynote speech to delegates, Mr Rennie said people were "fed up with ten years of division, with one half of Scotland pitted against the other".

He added: "You would think that the SNP would accept that erecting borders, any kind of borders, is not in our interest.

"They can’t see it but every time the SNP speak to point out the flaws of Brexit, they undermine the case for independence too."

He called on "principled and passionate Europeans" in the Labour Party to join the Lib Dems in attempting to halt Brexit, and advocated a federal UK.

UK leader Vince Cable will tell delegates today that the Conservative's Brexit deal is unravelling, while calling on the SNP "to do the right thing" and choose the national interest over its own.

He is expected to say: “Our campaign for a people’s vote on the final deal is building in strength every week. And I am pleased to see people from across the political spectrum getting behind it.

"But a notable absence is the SNP. My party is working with the SNP to keep the UK in the Single Market.

"But it is not enough for the SNP to lament the consequences of Brexit, and of leaving the Single Market.

“In today’s political environment, Brexit is not – or doesn’t need to be – inevitable but time is running out for the SNP to play their part in stopping it."

He will add: “So Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP will have a decision to make. The national interest or her party interest.

"Save the United Kingdom from Brexit, or pursue her dogged agenda of seeing Scotland out of both the unions which safeguard its prosperity. Scotland surely will not forgive her if she makes the wrong choice."