• identify any particular difficulties people in these groups face in becoming Members of Parliament, • recommend ways of supporting them; and • suggest ways of tackling those barriers to their success. The Conference is also looking at issues of representation relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The Speaker’s Conference has the support of all the political parties in the House of Commons, and its membership reflects the representation of the different parties in the House. Fifty per cent of the MPs on the Conference are women; the Conference also includes MPs who are of black or minority ethnic origin and MPs who live with injury, illness or disability (IID). We have visited a number of parts of the UK to take evidence, and recently had an historic oral evidence session with the three main party leaders in the UK Parliament, including the Prime Minister – the first time ever such a session has happened. In July the Conference produced an interim report, which concluded that, despite recent changes, MPs “remain predominantly white, male, middle-aged and middle class.” It says that “many people will look at MPs in the Commons debating chamber and see very few Members who look as if they have lived a similar life or who can speak for them with the authority of shared experience.”