Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 4
4th Report – The Armed Forces Covenant
Published 8 Apr 2025
Addressed to Ministry of Defence
Defence Committee The Armed Forces Covenant All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Implementation of the Covenant Legal Duty varies considerably across the UK. In some places the Legal Duty has resulted in the creation of new policies and initiatives that have tangibly improved the lives of the forces community; in others the Duty appears to have changed very little. As a result, people’s experiences of the Covenant are very different depending on where they live, which services or organisations they interact with and which individual member of staff in an organisation they speak to. This is frustrating for people in the forces community, and gives them the impression that the Covenant is a hollow commitment. The Government wants to expand the scope of the Covenant, and we understand the reasons 26 for this. However, equal attention must be given to ensuring that the Legal Duty is consistently and appropriately applied and translates into better outcomes for people in the forces community. (Conclusion, Paragraph 20)
From: Defence Committee, 4th Report – The Armed Forces Covenant (HC 572), 8 April 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 June 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The MOD agrees with the Committee's main conclusions on the Armed Forces Covenant and accepts the recommendations on extending the Covenant Legal Duty and on data collection, while stating that UK-wide minimum standards 'would not be appropriate'.
- The MOD agrees with the conclusions at Paragraphs 13 and 20 and recognises that application of the Covenant principles 'varies across the UK'.
- On a strategy for consistent application, it says the Legal Duty is 'deliberately flexible and does not mandate outcomes', and that UK-wide minimum standards would not be appropriate. It will provide training materials, webinars, downloadable resources and updated statutory guidance.
- It accepts the recommendation to extend the Duty to all government departments and the devolved governments. Officials are 'currently developing plans' for this, and it acknowledges the extension will place 'additional strain' on departments and local authorities.
- It accepts the recommendation on data collection, says the evidence available is 'limited', and will hold the next Covenant conference in July 2025. On departmental reporting it will 'engage with OGDs to consider how best they can report'.