All Party Parliamentary Disability Group

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Disability (APPDG) is co-chaired by Baroness Jane Campbell and Ann McGuire MP. The APPDG strives to make future-proofing equality a major feature of policy-making so that disabled people can participate widely in all aspects of social, public and family life.

Membership of the Group is open to any Parliamentarian. The Group is one of the largest and most active of the hundreds of All-Party Groups that exist at Westminster.

The Group meets regularly when Parliament is sitting.  At each meeting members receive a presentation on current disability issues. This may be from a disability organisation, a Government Minister or an academic. Observers are also welcome to attend the meetings.

Recent APPDG meetings have covered the implementation of the UN Disability Convention, an accessible democracy, and disabled people’s priorities for the new Parliament. Click here for a list of forthcoming meetings, together with minutes from previous meetings

2010 APPDG Meetings

2nd February: UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
Speakers: James Woolfe (Office for Disability Issues) and Neil Crowther (Equality and Human Rights Commission)

The UK Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in June 2009. The ODI and the EHRC talked about their plans for implementation and monitoring.

Click here for notes
 
24th February: DWP Review of Employment Support for Disabled People
Speaker: Rebecca Sudworth (DWP)

The APPDG meeting concluded a series of engagement events of DWP with a number of key stakeholders, including Pathways to Work staff, disability organisations and customers. It was an opportunity for Parliamentarians who have not attended any of these events to find out more about the Government’s thinking around employment support for disabled people and to give feedback.

Click here for notes

2nd March: Disabled people’s priorities for the new Parliament
Speakers: Jonathan Shaw MP, Mark Harper MP and John Barratt MP

The main political party’s disability spokespeople spoke about their proposals for taking forward disability equality post the 2010 General Election. They’d been asked to respond to a briefing with priorities that disabled people sent us.

Click here for a briefing

Click here for notes

9th March: An Accessible Democracy
A joint event with the APPGs on Autism, Equality, Eye Health and Visual Impairment, and Learning Disability.
Speakers: Sean Anderson and Neil Adams (Promote the Vote), Jenny Watson (Electoral Commission) and John Bercow (Speaker of the House).

How accessible will the general election be? Increasing the diversity of representatives within parliament. And 'Promote the Vote' a community organisation working in the East of England with people with learning disabilities about voting, explained why it is a good idea to register to vote and have your say.

Click here for notes 

21st June: The APPDG hears from Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller MP

Click here for notes

Click here for minutes

14th July: the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics - a strong legacy for disabled people?

Click here for notes 

Click here for minutes

Also Coming up in 2010 …
 

Future of Social Care

Financial Independence

Digital Britain: closing the digital divide.

The Group will not meet until after the election. If you would like to receive emails about the Group’s activities, contact Marije Davidson with your email address.