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Honouring the Armed Forces Covenant

Geoff Wild examines the purpose of the Armed Forces Covenant and offers suggestions as to how local authorities can put it into practice.

The Armed Forces Covenant has existed in its current form since 2011. It is a promise by the nation, founded on the unique obligations and sacrifices of those who serve, or have served, in the Armed Forces, that they and their families should be treated fairly. This was designed to ensure that the sacrifices made by the Armed Forces Community in the national interest should not come at significant cost when accessing goods and services in the UK.

Section 8 of the Armed Forces Act 2021 amended Part 16A of the Armed Forces Act 2006 (‘the Act’) by inserting sections 343AA to 343AF, enshrining the Armed Forces Covenant into law to help prevent service personnel, veterans and their family members being disadvantaged when accessing public services.

However, in a Parliamentary Defence Committee report published in April 2025, MPs urged the government to put its commitment to respecting the armed forces further into law after finding patchy implementation by councils and other public bodies. It found a real distribution of views amongst local authorities about what the Covenant meant and how it should be applied. It recommended amendments to the Armed Forces Bill for an expanded Covenant Legal Duty, alongside a strategy for making sure the Covenant is fully and consistently applied nationwide.

The Duty

The 2006 Act (as amended) places a legal duty on specified public persons and bodies, including local authorities (s.343AA(3)(a)), to have due regard to the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant when exercising statutory functions in the fields of healthcare, education and housing (excluding social care).

All councils have voluntarily signed the Armed Forces Covenant and many local Covenant projects go beyond the main areas of healthcare, education and housing, to include employment, public health, welfare, and transport. Whereas some local authorities have taken the Covenant Duty, gone top to bottom and thought about how that duty should be applied across their statutory services, with clear, visible leadership and accountability, other local authorities have taken the view that in the absence of any funding to support the Covenant, they will do the absolute minimum.

The design of the Covenant Duty recognises the need for flexibility and does not mandate any one way that councils must follow in order to meet the duty. Whilst many councils lead comprehensive approaches to local Covenant delivery, others may decide that to meet the ‘due regard’ duty they need to modify policies, processes or procedures; how they gather and record information about local armed forces communities; and identify staff training needs (useful e-learning modules have been devised by Warwickshire County Council and Coventry City Council).

At the very least, each council should identify a lead officer with responsibility for the Covenant, who should also be a member of the LGA’s Armed Forces Covenant Officer Network.

The Principles

The Covenant Duty principles are:

  • Recognition of the unique obligations of, and sacrifices made by, the armed forces and their families;
  • The desirability of removing disadvantages arising for service people and their families from membership of the armed forces;
  • That special provision for service people and their families may be justified by the effects on such people of membership of the armed forces.

The Practice

In practice, having ‘due regard’ is about informed decision-making, and means that local authorities should consciously consider and place appropriate weight on the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant when they consider all the factors relevant to how they carry out their functions.

They should ensure that mechanisms are in place that prompt decision-makers to assess how their decision might impact on service users from the Armed Forces Community. This won’t necessarily mean that the Armed Forces community will be placed at the front of the queue, but it will mean their circumstances will receive a fair assessment when their cases are considered.

Key areas impacted by the relevant functions, include:

The Guidance

Guidance on when and how to comply with the duty have been prepared:

Conclusion

As mentioned above, the Covenant Duty is not prescriptive about the approach a council should take in order to comply with its legal obligations. It also does not mandate that any particular conclusions are reached or specific public service delivery outcomes achieved as a result of that consideration. The actions and outcomes that bodies deem appropriate will vary across the country depending on local circumstances.

Pending any further legislation, each council should review its existing approach and plan (see Adur & Worthing’s for example) to ensure they include specific reference to the duty and the ways in which the council will meet it and accord with the various statutory guidance – with specific emphasis on housing. This should be accompanied by a review of the relevant homelessness, tenancy and housing policies to ensure they incorporate similar references to the duty and how it will be met. Both the plan and the policies should then be promoted widely (internally and externally) and reviewed at regular intervals.

Geoff Wild is a Legal and Governance Consultant. He is celebrating his 40th anniversary as a local government lawyer.

This is the latest in a series of articles Geoff has written – previous contributions include:
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