The APPGA was set up in February 2000 and continues to work in Parliament today. Its role is to campaign in Parliament for greater awareness of autism and lobby the Government for improved services for autistic people and their parents and carers. The National Autistic Society provides the group’s secretariat. 

All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal, cross-party interest groups of MPs and Peers interested in a particular issue. 

The APPGA also has an advisory group of autistic self-advocates and other experts to advise the APPGA officers on current policy issues affecting autistic people and their families. 

When it was formed in 2000, the group decided that each advisory group member should have a mix of policy and autism knowledge. In addition, they decided that the group as a whole needed to have detailed parliamentary knowledge, academic insight, professional experience and a comprehensive representation of policy areas and autistic people.