4th Report – The Armed Forces Covenant

The timetable presented to us by the Secretary of State for producing a report meant there were fewer opportunities to take oral evidence on this subject than we would have preferred. (Conclusion, Paragraph 5)

Assuming precedent is followed, a Select Committee will be appointed to consider the Armed Forces Bill, with the opportunity to hear oral evidence before considering the Bill line by line. We recommend that the Government allow time for that Committee to hear from a broad range of organisations with an interest in the Armed Forces Covenant, as well as on other issues that may be within the scope of the Bill. (Recommendation, Paragraph 6) The Covenant today

The evidence we received shows that where the Covenant is working well it is improving outcomes for service personnel, their families and veterans and is removing some of the disadvantages people face as a result of military service. However, this was not the experience of everyone who responded to our inquiry. We heard many examples where the Covenant was not working as designed, resulting in people who have served being financially disadvantaged, unable to access medical care, or unable to find an appropriate school for their children as a result of their service. In cases like these, the Government and society are falling short of their commitment to the Armed Forces community. (Conclusion, Paragraph 13)

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)

Alongside its plans to legislate for an expanded Covenant Legal Duty, the Government should develop a strategy for making sure the Covenant is fully and consistently applied and recognised by signatories and by those subject to the Legal Duty across the UK, including in the Devolved Administrations. Actions as part of this strategy could include establishing clear and demanding standards and mechanisms for accountability, improving guidance to those delivering services, and facilitating knowledge-sharing so that best practice can spread. (Recommendation, Paragraph 21) The future of the Covenant

We welcome the proposal to extend the Covenant Legal Duty to areas of central government. If this duty is properly implemented, we would expect to see Whitehall departments taking the needs of the forces community into account during policy development, so that the forces community are not unintentionally disadvantaged by new policies. (Conclusion, Paragraph 28)

The Government should extend the application of the Armed Forces Covenant so that all Government departments and the devolved administrations are required to give due regard to the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant. As the current duty of ‘due regard’ is inconsistently interpreted, the extended duty must be accompanied by clear guidance so that the duty is clearly understood and is not treated as a tick-box exercise. (Recommendation, Paragraph 29)

The Government is right to recognise that the existing Covenant Duty does not reach into many areas of life in which the service community faces disadvantage, and to consider expanding the scope of the Covenant Legal Duty. As noted in the previous chapter, extending the Legal Duty will only achieve meaningful results if it is also deliverable. The extension of the Duty must therefore be co-designed with those who will be bound by it and expected to deliver it, and they must be appropriately resourced to enable them to do so. Otherwise there is a risk that existing commitments will be diluted and that those who deliver the Covenant will only be able to provide the bare minimum of support. Such an outcome would let down the forces community. (Conclusion, Paragraph 30)

The Covenant Legal Duty should be expanded to cover the breadth of areas in which members of the Armed Forces community regularly experience disadvantage. The Government should work closely with local authorities and other bodies who might be required to deliver an expanded Covenant 27 Duty to co-design a Duty that meets the needs of the forces community and that can be delivered in the context of severe constraints on their resources. (Recommendation, Paragraph 31)

The evidence available to help us understand how well the Covenant is working is currently very fragmented. This makes recognising success, learning lessons and holding organisations to account difficult. The Minister told us there were ‘plans afoot’ to create structures that can improve Government’s understanding of how well the Covenant is working. (Conclusion, Paragraph 36)

The Government should provide the Committee with an update, in its response to this Report and when it gives evidence to the Committee on the Covenant Annual Report in the future, on the work it is doing to improve data collection and sharing of how the Covenant is being delivered. (Recommendation, Paragraph 37)

To enable proper scrutiny of cross-government efforts to implement the Covenant, Whitehall departments should provide an annual update on actions they have taken to uphold the Covenant as part of the Covenant Annual Report, along with outcomes. Departments should–when requested to do so by the Committee–make themselves available to give evidence as supporting witnesses alongside MOD as part of the Committee’s scrutiny of the Covenant Annual Report. (Recommendation, Paragraph 38)

The Armed Forces Covenant is a solemn commitment by our whole society to recognise the courage and dedication of our Armed Forces. While progress has been made since the Covenant was introduced, it is still not consistently implemented and as a result our society is falling short of that commitment far too often. The upcoming Armed Forces Bill is an opportunity to renew and reinforce the nation’s promise to those who serve, but this is only part of the change that needs to occur. Understanding of the Covenant needs to be deeply embedded in our institutions and in wider society so that those who have served can be in no doubt that the Covenant is there to support them. The Covenant gives us all a duty to our service men and women; we must take it as seriously as they have taken their duty to us. (Conclusion, Paragraph 39) 28