With
the results in from all 32 council areas, the "No" side won with
2,001,926 votes over 1,617,989 for "Yes".
Prime
Minister David Cameron said he was delighted the UK would remain together and
that commitments on extra powers would be honoured "in full".
Mr
Cameron said the three main unionist parties at Westminster would now follow
through with their pledge of more powers for the Scottish Parliament.
He
announced that Lord Smith
of Kelvin, who led Glasgow's staging of the Commonwealth Games, would
oversee the process to take forward the commitments, with new powers over tax,
spending and welfare to be agreed by November, and draft legislation published
by January.
The
prime minister also acknowledged that the people of England, Wales and Northern
Ireland must have a bigger say over their affairs.
And
he promised a solution to the West Lothian question - the fact that Scottish
MPs can vote on English issues at Westminster, and not the other way round.
In
other developments:
- Share prices rose as Scotland voted against independence.
- Polling officials said they were investigating 10 cases of suspected electoral fraud at polling stations in Glasgow.
- Royal Bank of Scotland said it would keep its headquarters in Scotland following the "No" vote.
- Wales's First Minister Carwyn Jones said he was pleased Scotland voted to stay in the Union, adding: "Together we will shape a new constitutional future for the UK."
- Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson said he was "delighted" Scotland would remain in the Union and he would hold talks with his Welsh counterpart to discuss the wider implications.
- Scotland rejected independence by 55% to 45%. For latest results and full coverage, go to bbc.co.uk/scotland-decides.
The
result became a mathematical certainty at 06:08, as the returning officer in
Fife announced a comfortable No vote.
Shortly
afterwards, Mr Salmond said he accepted the defeat and called for national
unity.
He
said the referendum and the high turnout (nearly 85%) had been a "triumph
for the democratic process" and promised to keep his pledge in the
Edinburgh Agreement which paved the way for the referendum to respect the
result.
He
told supporters: "The unionist parties made vows late in the campaign to
devolve more powers to Scotland.
 |
| Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond |
"Scotland
will expect these to be honoured in rapid course - as a reminder, we have been
promised a second reading of a Scotland Bill by March 27 next year.
And
the first minister said: "Whatever else we can say about this referendum
campaign, we have touched sections of the community who have never before been
touched by politics, these sections of the community have touched us and
touched the political process."
In
a rallying call to his supporters, Mr Salmond urged the Yes voters to reflect
on how far they had come.
"I
don't think any of us, whenever we entered politics, would have thought such a
thing to be either credible or possible," he said.
He
also claimed the campaign had put "a scare and a fear of enormous
proportions" at the heart of the Westminster establishment.
"Today
of all days as we bring Scotland together, let us not dwell on the distance we
have fallen short, let us dwell on the distance we have travelled and have
confidence the movement is abroad in Scotland that will take this nation
forward," he added.
