FIVE major public bodies and institutions covering a swathe of civic Scotland are asking the Smith Commission to recommend that the new powers which emerge for Holyrood be subject to review every five years.

As submissions to the commission close today, the call for a "five-year rule" comes from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Church of Scotland, the National Union of Students and the Electoral Reform Society.

The intervention came as the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS) submitted its views to the commission demanding a continued level ­playing field for business and the devolution of further tax powers where the benefits outweigh the set-up costs.

The letter from civic bodies calling for five-yearly reviews says: "The overall approach to devolution in recent years has lost its focus. The notion that we can come to a permanent settlement over the 'devolution question' based on brokering the short-term vested interests of political parties no longer holds weight. Devolution needs to be seen as an evolving process rather than a fixed (political) event."

They suggest four ways in which a five-year rule would help:

l Giving time to see how any new powers work in practice.

l Helping to identify how to respond to any new challenges.

l Affording space to allow a citizen-led process in the future.

l Providing an opportunity for institutions, academics and journalists to study whether or not new powers are fit for purpose.

Martin Sime, chief executive of the SCVO, explained: "Regularly reviewing any agreement on more powers for Scotland would create time and space for people to have a real say and for future decisions about devolution to be based on evidence of what is and isn't working. This would mean that, despite the Smith Commission's impossibly tight timetable, we can still pursue a bottom-up devolution process led by people in Scotland, not just by politicians."

The ICAS submission is cautious, stressing the need for better use of existing powers, more rigorous scrutiny of Holyrood and further devolution down to a more local level.

It backs devolution of air passenger duty, control of the minimum wage and greater borrowing powers but stresses the need for a single system of UK company and audit regulation.

ICAS chief executive, Anton Colella, said: "Further devolution is a complex and delicate balance. Our submission sets out how we think the wish of the people for further devolution can be achieved without causing unintended consequences to the aims of doing better business, creating wealth and jobs and achieving a fairer society."