Defence committee

Ben Obese-Jecty Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bailey]

In short, yes, the covenant is going into law. The report shows the stark contrast between governance in the UK and in Scotland.

[Ben Obese-Jecty (Huntingdon) (Con)]

Only last week, I spoke to a serving constituent who highlighted the issues he had had regarding the selective application of the armed forces covenant by universities. There are universities that have signed the covenant but offer no additional dispensation regarding study breaks for service personnel who are undertaking a course but are subsequently deployed. Deployments are often for 26 weeks, not including pre-deployment training or post-tour leave, whereas the maximum study break is around 16 weeks, in two terms of eight weeks. This may lead to the service person dropping out of the course and the forfeiture of their enhanced learning credits, through no fault of their own. Can I ask the Select Committee member, or indeed the Minister, to take this into account in order to facilitate the resettlement that service personnel depend on?

[Mr Bailey]

I will. As someone who was impacted thus myself, this is something I am aware of, and I will take it back to the Defence Committee for a response.