 As the oldest committee member, I welcome everybody to the first meeting of the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing. No apologies have been received. Let me invite everyone in turn to declare interests. For my part, I have no relevant interests to declare. Let me go round the table starting with Ben. I have no relevant interests to declare, but I refer members to my voluntary register of interests that I am a non-practicing member of the Lost Society of Scotland in the case that is of our relevance. I have no relevant interests to declare. As a former police officer, I am in receipt of a police pension, which may feature. I am also a member of the retired police officer of the station Scotland, Highlands and Islands branch. I have no relevant interests to declare. Thank you very much, colleagues. If any other members join us, I will ensure that they are invited to so declare similarly. Next item on the agenda is the choosing of a convener. May I ask for nominations as a convener? I would like to nominate Mary Fee. Mary, you are willing to serve. Thank you. Are there any other nominations? I would like to nominate Margaret Mitchell, who has agreed that she is interested. If you would like to nominate her, I may say a few words on that nomination, please. I am perfectly content to allow that. I will, however, allow Mary Fee also to say a few words if that is okay with her. It is not as nominee, rather, as a proposer. Speak ahead. I would like to say that we are fortunate. We have got two very good candidates. I was a member of a committee that Mary shared, and I had every confidence in her ability to do that. Likewise, if she is the successful candidate today, she will have my full and unqualified support. I have to say that, in the letter that was written from this committee to the Presiding Officer, which we all undertook to go with and it was circulated, part of the proposal of the membership was that the convener of the justice committee should convene the subcommittee. It also qualified, although it is recognised that this is a decision of the subcommittee itself. Nowhere did it say that this would be the subject of an arrangement between the business managers of the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Labour Party. That is disappointing if that were a feature of it, but whatever the decision, the convener will enjoy my full and unqualified support. That is a very helpful set of remarks. Without further ado, we should move to the vote thing. I will take the votes in the order in which the nominations were received. Can I ask for a show of hands for those in favour of Mary Fee? There were three votes for Mary Fee and two votes for Margaret Mitchell. I therefore declare that Mary Fee is the convener of the justice subcommittee on policing and I now vacate the chair and pass it to our convener. Thank you for choosing me to be the convener of the policing subcommittee. I look forward to working with you all over the coming session. Before I move on to cover the rest of the agenda for today, I invite Rona Mackay to make any declarations. No register of interest. Agenda item 2 is also for this committee to decide whether it wishes to choose a deputy convener. There is no obligation for us to do so and an alternative might be to appoint a temporary convener if the convener is unavailable. Do members wish to appoint a deputy convener? Thank you very much indeed. In the circumstances now, I think that I would associate myself entirely with John's earlier comments and offer my own congratulations on your appointment as the convener. In those circumstances, I would be keen to nominate Margaret Mitchell for deputy convener. I think that it would also help in terms of the continuity that was referred to in the letter from the committee to the parliamentary bureau. On that basis, I would nominate Margaret. That's lovely. Thank you very much. Do we agree to choose Margaret Mitchell as our deputy convener? I think that procedurally we need to decide to have a deputy convener first. All right. Okay. Sorry. If I may, convener. Thank you. Thank you. Do we agree to nominate a deputy convener? As Margaret Mitchell has been nominated, do we agree to appoint Margaret Mitchell as our deputy convener? I agree. Can I just enter the caveat? Well, I contend she agreed to serve as convener. She of course has the right to inform us subsequently that she would not be content to serve as deputy convener. I'm very content that we take that decision today. I don't think that we should hang her at some procedure. We will make that decision today, and obviously if Margaret Mitchell chooses not to, it's something we can revisit at a future meeting. Agenda item 3 today is a decision on taking business in private. Is the committee content to take items 4 and 5 in private, which are a discussion of working practices and the sub-committees work programme? Very, very good. Thank you very much. We now move into private session.