Who we are

Sir Jeremy practised as a Barrister specialising in criminal law until being elected as a Member of Parliament for Rugby and Kenilworth in 2005. Following boundary changes, he was re-elected for the Kenilworth and Southam constituency in 2010 and again in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

In his first Parliament, he founded and chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia and served as a member of the Constitutional Affairs (later Justice) Select Committee. He was appointed an Opposition Whip in 2007 and became a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (Government Whip) in the Coalition Government in 2010.

In 2012, Sir Jeremy was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice with responsibility for prisons, rehabilitation and sentencing. In 2014 he was promoted to the position of Attorney General, chief legal adviser to the Government and overseeing the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office.

He became Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in 2018, publishing the Online Harms White Paper in April 2019. He left Government with the arrival of the new Prime Minister later that year.

Sir Jeremy now serves as a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE is a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords and an advocate for children’s rights in the digital world.

Before entering the House of Lords, Kidron spent 30 years as a film director, making dramas including the BAFTA-winning Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit; Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Too Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar, and documentaries such as Sex Death and the Gods, and InRealLife among others. She was the co-founder of the educational charity Into Film, now accessed by more than half of all UK state schools free of charge.

Kidron is the Founder and Chair of 5Rights Foundation, a charity that works to create policy and practical solutions to build the digital world children and young people deserve. Among its flagship projects, 5Rights is drafting the General Comment on the Digital World on behalf of the Council on the Rights of the Child; creating an international standard for Age Appropriate Published Terms, working with countries around the world to create a Global Handbook on Child Online Protection, and hosting the Digital Futures Commission.

In the House of Lords, Kidron successfully introduced amendments to the Data Protection Act 2018 that resulted in the Age Appropriate Design Code (‘Children’s Code’). The first legislation of its kind, delivering high standards of data protection for users under the age of 18. She also sat on the Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee Inquiry and was previously a member of the Lords Communications Select Committee.

Kidron is a member of the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development;the Global Council on Extended Intelligence; and the UNICEF Artificial Intelligence and Child Rights Policy Guidance Group.

Maria was first elected to represent Basingstoke in the 2005 General Election. Before entering Parliament, Maria worked for 20 years in marketing, including board level experience.

On becoming a Member of Parliament, Maria was appointed to the Trade and Industry Select Committee. David Cameron appointed her as Shadow Minister for Education in December 2005, then Shadow Minister for Family Welfare in the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2006. Maria moved back to the Education team as Shadow Minister for the Family in July 2007 and remained in post until the 2010 General Election.

Maria was appointed Minister for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions in the Coalition Government in May 2010 and was promoted to Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Minister for Women and Equalities, from September 2012 to April 2014.In June 2015 Maria was elected as Chair of the newly established Women and Equalities Select Committee. Maria was nominated for the position by MPs across the House in 2017 and was re-elected unopposed.

In addition to her role as an officer of the APPG on Digital Regulation and Responsibility, Maria holds offices in a number of All-Party Parliamentary Groups, and is currently Co-Chair of the APPG on Domestic Violence, Co-Chair of APPG UN Women Chair and Chair of the APPG on Women in Parliament. Maria is also a Director and Trustee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and Patron of HCUK.

Jim Knight works in education, digital technology and as a legislator.

He is a director of Suklaa Ltd, providing advice services to UK and international clients working in education. Jim also regularly speaks and facilitates events for a range of clients, adding to Suklaa’s expertise in creating engaged education communities.

Jim is a founder of xRapid, an AI diagnostic business. He is the Chair of E-Act Multi Academy Trust, the Digital Poverty Alliance and CAST. He is a board member of Climate SUBAK CIC, Century-Tech, MACAT International and GoBubble and sits on the advisory bodies for Tes Global, Nord Anglia, and BETT.

As a UK government minister and MP, Jim’s portfolios included rural affairs, schools, digital and employment. He was a member of Gordon Brown’s Cabinet 2009-2010, before joining the Lords after the 2010 General Election.

Lord Clement-Jones was made CBE for political services in 1988 and a life peer in 1998. Until July 2004 he was the Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman and thereafter until 2010 Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport, in the House of Lords. He is the current House of Lords Liberal Democrat spokesman for Digital and a former spokesman on the Creative Industries (2015-17). He is the former Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (2017-18) and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI. He is a founder member of the OECD Parliamentary Group on AI and a member of the Council of Europe’s Ad-hoc Committee on AI (CAHAI). He is Deputy Chair of the APPG China. From 2018, he has been a Consultant of global law firm DLA Piper where previous positions held included London Managing Partner (2011-16), Head of UK Government Affairs, Chairman of its China and Middle East Desks, International Business Relations Partner and Co-Chairman of Global Government Relations. He is Chair of Ombudsman Services Limited, the not for profit, independent ombudsman service providing dispute resolution for the communications, energy, property and copyright licensing industries. He is Chair of Council of Queen Mary University of London and Chair of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Ethical AI in Education, led by Sir Anthony Seldon. He was an external member of the Council of University College London and Chair of its Audit Committee (2012-17). He is a Board Member of the Corporate Finance Faculty of the ICAEW. He is a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center which focuses on technology, altruism, geopolitics and competition. He is President of Ambitious About Autism, an autism education charity and school for children with autism and other communication disorders and its former Chairman (2001-08).

Hannah has been the MP for the Livingston constituency since she was first elected in 2015 and is currently the party’s spokesperson on Consular Affairs and International Engagement. She was the SNP’s Westminster Spokesperson for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport when the Government issued the Online Harms White Paper and submitted a detailed response.

Hannah was born and raised in Craigshill, Livingston and later attended Stirling University where she studied Film and Media. Before becoming an MP, Hannah worked in commercial television with STV Glasgow and GMTV London as an assistant producer for their political programme, “The Sunday Programme”. Hannah enjoys the creative arts, sports and the outdoors, with a particularly keen interest in women’s football.