The Military Covenant or Armed Forces Covenant is a term introduced in 2000 into British public life to refer to the mutual obligations between the United Kingdom and the British Armed Forces. According to The Guardian, "it is an informal understanding, rather than a legally enforceable deal, but it is nevertheless treated with great seriousness within the services".[1] It was coined in Soldiering – The Military Covenant (booklet), UK: Ministry of Defence, April 2000, and has now entered political discourse as a way of measuring whether the government and society at large have kept to their obligations to support members of the armed forces.
The Covenant is a term used mainly by the British Army, other British armed forces and the media in relation to the question of adequate safeguards, rewards and compensation for military personnel who risk their lives in obedience to military orders derived from the policy of the elected civilian government. It is argued that armed forces personnel should expect to be treated fairly by the Crown and expect the support of the United Kingdom, society and the government.
The Ministry of Defence[2] states "In putting the needs of the Nation, the Army and others before their own, they forgo some of the rights enjoyed by those outside the Armed Forces. So, at the very least, British soldiers should always expect the Nation and their commanders to treat them fairly, to value and respect them as individuals, and to sustain and reward them and their families."
Although the term "covenant" implies some form of legal guarantee or contract, there is in fact no basis in UK law, custom or history for such covenant. Members of the armed forces are recruited and maintained by successive quinquennial Armed Forces Acts as a specific, albeit continuing, derogation from the Bill of Rights 1689, which otherwise prohibits the Crown from maintaining a standing army. The Armed Forces Acts guarantee no such covenant, neither do the Notice Papers served on recruits when attested on enlistment.[citation needed]
There has been increased media coverage of the so-called military covenant as the government has been accused of failing to meet it; this criticism came from not just the media, but also several previous Chiefs of the Defence Staff said the government needed to do more to help support injured troops and their families.[3][4][5]
In 2023, the Labour Party's Shadow Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs, Rachel Hopkins, committed the Party to fully enshrining the Covenant into law under a future Labour government and providing additional funding for mental health provision for veterans.[6][7]