2 April 2025
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Deafness is a cross-party group of parliamentarians (MPs in the House of Commons and Peers in the House of Lords) who come together to discuss relevant issues and agree joint parliamentary actions.
The group meet regularly to:
- understand the issues facing deaf people and people with hearing loss
- campaign for policy change in Parliament.
RNID provides the secretariat to the APPG on Deafness. This means they support the admin and logistics of the Group, but its officers make all the substantive decisions.
Officers
Chair
Catherine Atkinson MP (Labour)
Vice chairs
- Lord Bruce of Bennachie (Liberal Democrat)
- Alison Griffiths MP (Conservative)
- Peter Prinsley MP (Labour)
Members
In addition to our officers above, the named members of the APPG are:
- Richard Baker
- Lorraine Beavers
- Chris Bloome
- Charlotte Cane
- Ben Coleman
- Deirdre Costigan
- Jen Craft
- Amanda Hack
- Patrick Hurley
- Brian Leishman
- Seamus Logan
- Brian Mathew
- Perran Moon
- Helen Morgan
- Samantha Niblett
- Jo Platt
- Yasmin Qureshi
- Naza Shah
- Baggy Shanker
- John Whitby
Agenda
The APPG has agreed to focus on a small list of priority issues, they are:
- Reform of the Audiology Pathway
- The barriers to employment for people who are deaf or have hearing loss
- Access to NHS services
- Celebrating deaf success and culture in Parliament
Past successes
Over recent years, the APPG on Deafness has:
- The APPG was the key parliamentary forum through which support for the BSL Act 2022 was coordinated.
- Successfully campaigned to change the law to give ministers the ability to require subtitles on on-demand programmes.
- Pushed for the creation and delivery of NHS England’s Action Plan on Hearing Loss, which led to NICE guidance on hearing loss, revised criteria for Cochlear Implants and improvements in the provision of NHS audiology services.
- Successfully lobbied for lifting the Government’s cap on Access to Work awards which disproportionately impacted deaf people who need British Sign Language interpreters in the workplace.
- Called for British Sign Language to be part of the national curriculum in support of the National Deaf Children’s Society’s campaign.
- Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the APPG on Deafness has called on the Government to distribute clear personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers within health and social care settings. This resulted in the Government providing 250,000 clear masks to frontline NHS and social care staff.