 Y cysylltu busnesau nifer i gael i'r pwysnesl ffiyth 6.596 i gael i George Adam, yn y 180 rhai gyfnod o'r Gymraeg Diolch i gael i gael ei busnesau yma. Mae'r cyfreiddau sydd wedi gael i gael i gael i'r pwysnesl ffiyth? Rwy'n meddwl ei chyfnod i'r pwysnesl yma. Rwy'n meddwl i'r pwysnesl ffiyth. Rwy'n meddwl i gael i'r pwysnesl ffiyth? Mae'r cyfreiddau sydd wedi gael i'r pwysnesl ffiyth, The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is a debate on motion 6595 in the name of Nicola Sturgeon on appointment I invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request-to-speak buttons now, and I call on the First Minister to speak to and move the motion. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm very pleased to move the motion in my name that Eleanor Whitham be appointed as a Scottish junior minister. Before I do so, let me first thank Ash Regan for her contribution to the Scottish Government. During her time as community safety minister, Ash worked across a wide range of important issues such as tackling inequality in the justice system and introducing and seeing past new legislation to restrict the sale and use of fireworks, and in thanking her I also wish her all the best for the future. Turning now to today's appointment, it gives me great pleasure to seek Parliament's agreement to the appointment of Eleanor Whitham. Although relatively new to this Parliament, I have no doubt that she brings significant experience to the wide-ranging role of community safety minister. Eleanor has herself spoken of how her political convictions have been shaped by her own life experiences growing up in a loving family, often blighted by poverty and real hardship, which eventually forced them to emigrate to Canada when she was just six years old. Eleanor returned to Scotland after graduating from university and worked in community youth and homelessness roles and ran three businesses as a sole trader. She also spent over a decade as a women's aid worker in Ayrshire supporting women and children experience and domestic abuse. More recently, Eleanor has served as the Deputy Leader of East Ayrshire Council and was a causeless community wellbeing spokesperson. Since becoming an MSP last year, Eleanor has greatly impressed both her colleagues and, I hope, her political opponents with her robust and fair convenership of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Finally, Eleanor is, I think, the only person in this chamber who has campaigned in independence referendums on either side of the Atlantic, having been involved as a student in the 1995 Quebec vote. The yes side did, of course, lose that referendum by the narrowest of margins, but without straying too much into constitutional politics, let me just say that I am confident that for Eleanor on the referendum front it will be third time lucky. Presiding Officer, it's often said that people place rightly a huge priority on politicians having real-life experience. If that is indeed the case, then Eleanor's political professional and indeed her personal experiences make her overwhelmingly qualified for ministerial office. She has proven herself to be a hardworking and capable public servant and I am sure the whole chamber will give her their best wishes. Presiding Officer, I am asking Parliament today to agree that I now seek the king's approval for the appointment of Eleanor Wittam as a junior Scottish minister. Thank you. I now call on Craig Hoy. Thank you, Presiding Officer. On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I echo the First Minister's congratulations to her newest minister, Eleanor Wittam. I can also commend the First Minister for displaying her customary good humour and collegiate warmth in the text of her letter to the outgoing minister, Ash Regan. The letter was short but I'm not sure that it was sweet, so it's no wonder that ministerial resignations are a rare event in her government. On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I join the First Minister in congratulating Eleanor Wittam on her new role. Despite a long period in Canada, she is deeply rooted in the community that she represents. The new Minister for community safety served as a Scottish women's aid worker in Ayrshire for over a decade and she is experienced in the sensitive and important issues relating to her new role. Like the First Minister, I also note that in the 1995 referendum Ms Wittam was a campaigner in favour of an independent Quebec. So can I wish her the same success and any future similar referendum should ever arise? I would also like to pay tribute to Ash Regan. It is not common for SNP MSPs to think independently of the First Minister, let alone resign from her government. So I thank her for her integrity and her principled honesty and, of course, her bravery. There is an irony that a Minister for community safety has resigned on an issue extensively of community safety. She took her principled stand, something that we sadly do not see enough of in public life today. There is also an irony that the Minister who sought to ban fireworks went out with a bang the week before Guy Fox night. She lit the First Minister's blue touch paper, and judging by her press conference this week, she clearly isn't going to retire to a safe distance. Can I also take this opportunity to commiserate with those bright, aspiring, ambitious SNP-backed benchars who are still hoping to have their first ride in a ministerial limazine? Christine Grahame, Paul MacLennan, Kenny Gibson, Stuart McMillan, John Mason and Michelle Thomson, among others. I'm sure their time will come. Indeed, it may come sooner than they think. It may come. It may come, First Minister. It may come, First Minister, as soon as it's Stage 3 of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill later this month, when you receive further at round of ministerial resignations. In closing on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, can I wish Elaine up with him well? It is an important position that she takes on for the communities that we represent, and we wish her well in doing so. Thank you. The question is the motion 6595, in the name of Nicola Sturgeon, on appointment of junior Scottish minister, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. Be a moment before we move on to the next item of business. Thank you, colleagues. The next item of business is portfolio questions, and portfolio questions this afternoon is net zero energy and transport. I would request those members who wish to ask a supplementary to please press the request to speak buttons or indicate so in the chat function by entering the letters RTS during the relevant question. As ever, I would make a plea for succinct questions and answers in order to get in as many members as possible. I call question number one, Jackie Baillie. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will instruct Scottish Water to freeze water rates for 23.24 to help with the cost of living crisis. Cabinet Secretary, Michael Matheson.