Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday pledged that more powers will be delivered to Scotland after a majority voted "No" in the Sept. 18 Scottish independence referendum.

It was time to move from the "battleground to the common ground," said Brown at Dalgety Bay, Fife in southeast Scotland, noting that "We will lock in today the promises that we have made."

Brown described three "lock ins" which he said demonstrated that pre-referendum promises would be kept, such as a resolution has been signed by the leaders of the United Kingdom's three main political parties, with his committing to a timetable of action including draft legislation for a new Scotland Bill by the end of January. The motion will be placed in the House of Commons on Monday.

Secondly, civil servants were already at work drawing up a timetable and detailed plans so that a "command paper" setting out new powers can be published by the end of October, according to the former British prime minister.

Thirdly, a House of Commons debate will be held on Oct. 16 to ensure the plans are on track, he added.

Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron also vowed to deliver on the pre-referendum promises made by the three main Westminster parties to boost the powers of Scotland's devolved parliament.

After Thursday's polling, 55.3 percent of the Scots voted against independence while 44.7 percent voted in favor, and the turnout is 84.59 percent in the Scottish independence referendum, according to final result announced on Friday.

Later on Friday, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond announced his resignation after the Yes campaign's defeat in the independence referendum.

Salmond said he will be standing down as Scotland's First Minister and leader of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP), adding that he would not accept nomination for leader at SNP's annual conference in November and, after the party membership ballot there, he will stand down as first minister.

In the his statement, Salmond stressed that Scotland now has "the opportunity to hold Westminster's feet to the fire on the vow that they have made to devolve further meaningful power to Scotland."

Salmond will remain first minister with his full range of responsibilities including chairing the Scottish government and discharging the duties that fall to the office of First Minister until a new leader is nominated. It will then be up to the Scottish Parliament to agree with that choice. The current deputy First Minster Nicola Sturgeon was expected to assume the post.

In October 2012, Cameron and Salmond signed the Edinburgh Agreement, allowing Scotland to hold an independence referendum in autumn 2014 on the question "Should Scotland be an independent country?" Enditem

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