The Scottish and UK governments should negotiate a “clear pathway” allowing Scotland to exercise its democratic right to determine its constitutional future as a matter of urgency, according to a majority of the Constitution Committee.

In a new report, a majority of the committee’s MSPs found that it is problematic that no established mechanism exists to ensure that, in appropriate circumstances, the wishes of the people of Scotland can be expressed.

This represents a democratic “disjuncture” where the “democratic mechanism may not work”, and as the committee heard during evidence from Professor Alan Renwick of University College London, “it is the UK electorate that chooses those with the power to trigger a referendum, whereas the electorate whose wishes are to be respected is that of Scotland”.

The majority of the committee’s view was that this creates a “democratic anomaly”.

The report follows the committee’s inquiry into options for a legal mechanism for triggering any independence referendum.

Over several weeks, it gathered evidence from academics, lawyers and political science experts as it explored how any future vote could be legally brought.

The report’s conclusions, agreed by a majority of the committee, set out a number of statutory and non-statutory options that should be considered as part of negotiations between the Scottish and UK governments.

Clare Adamson, committee convener, said: “The majority of the committee recommends, that steps should be taken to address this democratic anomaly. This should include the agreement, regardless of the UK’s political priorities, of a trigger mechanism which would allow the people of Scotland to exercise their democratic right to determine Scotland’s constitutional future if they so wish.”