He is the former member of the Tai Po District Council for Yee Fu and the convenor of the Neo Democrats.

He was graduated from the City University of Hong Kong before he ran in the 1999 District Council election in Tai Yuen in as the youngest candidate in the election for the Democratic Party, where he lost to veteran Cheng Chun-ping.

In the 2008 party leadership election, Yam ran for the central committee with other reformist faction headed by Andrew Cheng who challenged the vice-chairman post.

[1] In the 2012 constitutional reform package in which the Democratic Party made a compromise with the Beijing authorities, Yam quit the party with other reformists including Gary Fan and formed the Neo Democrats in which he became one of its convenor.

In the 2012 Legislative Council election, he ran on Gary Fan's nine-man ticket in New Territories East, on the second place, and successfully gained a seat for the Neo Democrats with around 28,000 votes.