All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity & Inclusion in STEM

About the Group

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) in STEM aims to promote the inclusion and progression of people from diverse backgrounds in STEM, and to encourage government, parliamentarians, academics, businesses and other stakeholders to work towards a STEM sector that is representative of the population. We also want to consider and influence changes in policy that will lead to this outcome. 

As part of its work on equality, diversity and inclusion across the science and science engagement sectors, the British Science Association (BSA) acts as secretariat for the Group. The Group is made up of Members of Parliament and Lords, and is a focus for collaboration with businesses and other organisations in STEM.

Details of previous meetings of the APPG can be found here.

Follow the APPG on LinkedIn and BlueSky

Sponsors

                  Science Council logo           


To enquire about sponsoring the APPG, contact Agasty Baylon Yogaratnam.

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Members (2024-2029 parliament)

The Officers and Members of the APPG are listed below. All Officers were elected at the APPG's AGM on 11 February 2026.

Samantha Niblett MP

Chair

Labour

Sureena Brackenridge MP

Officer

Labour

Baroness Brown

Officer

Crossbench

Baroness Verma

Officer

Conservative

Valerie Vaz MP 

Member

Labour


Siân Berry MP

Member

Green

Adam Thompson MP

Member

Labour

Sam Carling MP

Member

Labour

Sadik Al-Hassan MP

Member

Labour

Pippa Heylings MP

Member

Liberal Democrat

Lord Smith of Finsbury

Member

Labour

Baroness Benjamin

Member

Liberal Democrat

Lord Clement-Jones

Member

Liberal Democrat

Liz Jarvis MP

Member

Liberal Democrat

James Asser MP

Member

Labour

Gordon McKee MP

Member

Labour

Baroness Golding

Member

Labour

Baroness Goudie

Member

Labour

Ellie Chowns MP

Member

Green

Baroness Prashar

Member

Crossbench

Dan Aldridge MP

Member

Labour

Baroness Thornton

Member

Labour

Chi Onwurah MP

Member

Labour

Lauren Sullivan MP

Member

Labour

Ben Spencer MP

Member

Conservative

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP

Member

Labour

Dawn Butler MP

Member

Labour

Baroness Grey-Thompson

Member

Crossbench

Baroness Freeman

Member

Crossbench

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering

Member

Conservative

Photos taken from the Parliament Website under an Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence.


This is not an official website of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. It has not been approved by either house or its committees.

All-Party Parliamentary Groups are informal groups of members of both houses with a common interest in particular issues. The views expressed in these webpages are those of the group.

Photo credit: Maurice

Evidence session – Monday 18 May 2026

The first event of the APPG on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM’s new project on AI equity took place on Monday 18 May 2026 in the Macmillan Room in Portcullis House.

Hosted by the APPG Chair, Samantha Niblett MP, this session focused on how current AI development processes failed to anticipate gendered harm, what the potential causes of these failures were, and how these causes could be addressed through new or existing policy or legislative levers.   

Samantha opened the meeting by welcoming attendees and explaining that earlier this year the APPG has launched a new project on AI equity in STEM which will be a series of deep dives that explore the current failures and opportunities of AI, and how a lack of diversity within the technology sector poses risk, safety, and quality concerns.   

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin and Sadik Al-Hassan MP joined Samantha on the evidence panel and began the session by asking a series of questions about what we know about gendered harms online and what work is currently happening to address their impact. In the first part of the session, we heard from:

  • Professor Helen Margetts (Professor of Society and the Internet, University of Oxford),
  • Maeve Walsh (Director, Online Safety Act Network)  
  • Annie Poland (Policy Manager, End Violence Against Women).  

The second part of the session focused on the processes and mechanisms for change. Speaking about the failures of the current AI development processes, who’s responsible for them, and the need for change were:

  • Professor Sana Khareghani (Chief Strategy Officer, Era4),
  • Mivy James (Chief Digital Technology Officer, Ministry of Defence), 
  • Steph Wright (Chief Executive, Our AI Collective)  

Based on this session, the APPG will publish a short report in summer 2026.