Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Armed Forces Covenant Duty to include all (a) (i) UK and (ii) devolved government Departments and (b) policy areas.

The Government’s election manifesto committed to placing the Armed Forces Covenant fully into law. During Armed Forces week in June, the Prime Minister announced that Service personnel, Veterans, their families and the bereaved are to have their unique circumstances legally protected by central and devolved Governments for the first time under new plans to extend the Covenant Legal Duty to more policy areas and across the UK. It is our ambition to include these statutory changes in the next Armed Forces Bill.