What is an All-Party Parliamentary Group?

All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal, cross-party interest groups of MPs and Peers interested in a particular issue. APPGs do not have any power to make laws and are not funded by Parliament. There are a great number of APPGs, covering many and such diverse fields such as health, education, transport, defence, finance, the media and sports.

The APPG on Legal Aid (the Group) was established in July 2009, and was co-sponsored by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) and Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL). In June 2023, the APPG on Legal Aid was merged with the APPG on Pro Bono and Public Legal Education  with the intention to highlight the importance of access to justice as a fundamental principle of the rule of law and empower individuals to exercise their rights, challenge discrimination, and reduce inequalities. That is how the APPG on Access to Justice was created.

You can see photographs of the launch event here.