 I would like to welcome everyone to this, to this, the 14th meeting of the Standards Procedure and Public Appointments Committee in 2023. I would like to welcome a significant surge of new members to the committee and we will start with inviting the members to make any declarations of appropriate interests. So, Stephen Kerr MSP, can I welcome you to the committee? Do you have any relevant interests to declare? Convener, wonderful to be here and serving under your convenership. Yes, I have a number of relevant matters to register with you and with the public, and that is that I have, before I was elected as a member of the Scottish Parliament, I had a number of different consultancies with different sectors, all of the details of which are published in my register of interests. I would also like to notably mention that I am a director of Whistleblowers UK, which is an organisation dedicated to supporting whistleblowers and also changing the law in respect of how whistleblowers are treated. Thank you, Stephen. Now can I turn to Ivan McKee MSP? Welcome you to the committee. Do you have any relevant interests to declare? Thank you, convener. I have no relevant interests pertaining to the work of this committee. Excellent, and welcome to the committee. Now can I turn to Evelyn Tweed MSP? Welcome to the committee. Do you have any relevant interests to declare? Thanks, convener. I am very happy to be here and will be part of the new committee for me, and I have nothing to declare. Excellent, thank you very much and welcome to the committee. And finally, Annie Wells MSP, welcome to the committee. Do you have any relevant declarations of interest? Thank you, convener. I have no relevant declarations of interest, but I look forward to working with yourself and the other committee members. Excellent. Thank you and welcome to the committee. I would also, on behalf of the committee, just like to take this opportunity to thank Bob Doris, Emma Harper, Alexander Stewart and Edward Mountain for their service to the committee prior to the new members joining and to inform the committee that I wrote to the former members over our recent recess just to thank them for their work. Our second agenda item is in choosing a new deputy convener following the departure of Bob Doris and just on the point of his deputy convenership, I would like to thank Bob personally for his help, wisdom and support at that time. The Parliament have agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as deputy convener of this committee, so can I invite Evelyn Tweed to nominate a member of the Scottish National Party to be deputy convener? Thanks, convener. I'd be delighted to nominate Ivan McKee. So that there is no requirement for a seconder on that matter, so are the committee in agreement that Ivan McKee MSP should be our deputy convener? We are. Excellent. Welcome to the role, deputy convener. Thank you. Our third agenda item is a decision for the committee to take item 4 in private. Item 4 is for the committee to consider an approach to the proxy voting evaluation, which needs to take place by the end of this year. Are members in agreement to take this item in private? Excellent. I will now close the public part of this meeting and move into private.