Biography
Wafia Zia is the Schwarzman Academy Fellow in the UK in the World Programme at Chatham House. Her research focuses on the UK Parliament engages with the strategic, institutional and policy challenges created by intensifying US-China competition.
Wafia is a former Schwarzman Scholar and former Procedural Advisor (Senior Clerk) in the House of Commons. Her work focuses on engaging with UK MPs on China’s domestic policies. She advised the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on community cohesion and devolution, and previously sat at the Table as a developing Table Clerk, advising the Speaker and MPs in the House of Commons Chamber.
She also served on the Committee on Standards, the disciplinary body overseeing breaches of the Code of Conduct. In this role, she worked with parliaments internationally to strengthen lobbying laws and helping to create new behavioural codes of conduct.
Her parliamentary experience also includes working on the Transport and Public Accounts Select Committees, where she advised on several high-profile inquiries. Wafia was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2024 for Social Impact. She holds a master’s degree in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University.
Past experience
| 2024–2025 | Deputy Head and Procedural Advisor, Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, House of Commons |
| 2022–2024 | Head of Parliamentary Papers and Public Petitions; Deputy Head and Procedural Advisor, Committees on Standards and Privileges, House of Commons |
| 2021–2022 | Deputy Head and Procedural Advisor, Transport Select Committee, House of Commons |
| 2020–2021 | Deputy Head and Procedural Advisor, Public Accounts Committee, House of Commons |