APPCBG is a platform for Members of Parliament (MPs) and Lords of all political parties who are concerned about and committed to serve the British Chinese community. The group is established for the current government session and it is led by its chair, Barry Gardiner MP (Labour, Brent North), and secretary, Andrew Mitchell (Conservative, Coldfield). 

The meeting benefited from the attendance of key community leaders and representatives of different political parties, including senior Conservative Party member Thomas Chan, Eddie Chan of the Chinese Health Living Centre and Shibo Shang of the Cambridge Chinese Community Centre.

During the meeting, community representatives iterated the importance of having up-to-date information on the Chinese population in the UK and the challenges they are facing. The last large-scale study by the government was published 30 years ago in 1986 by the Home Affairs Committee. Since then, the Chinese migrant community has increased rapidly from 120,000 to about 500,000.

Gardiner MP agreed with the community representatives that new research is necessary to allow the UK government and various non-governmental organisations to better understand serve the needs of the country’s Chinese community.

Gardiner MP also suggested that the APPCBG’s secretariat, the British Chinese Project, to write a scoping report in order to persuade the Home Affairs Committee to conduct an up-to-date comprehensive study.  The scoping report will draw on different community organisations that have front-line services and flag key issues and areas for investigation. The British Chinese Project is looking to deliver the scoping report in autumn 2016.

In 2013, the APPCBG has authored a report on the Chinese community and their access to the police (available for download on the British Chinese Project’s website).