First Armed Forces Military Covenant Report - Legion comments
20 December 2011
How the Armed Forces Covenant can help improve long-term care for the wounded and injured, as well as support for increasingly important reservists and the handling of veterans' complaints, are key issues highlighted by the very first report on the implementation of the Covenant, says The Royal British Legion.
The Legion welcomes the Government's announcement that it is to create a new Ministerial Committee to take forward Armed Forces Covenant issues.
The charity also expresses hope that the review of Armed Forces accommodation, announced separately by the Commons Defence Select Committee, will identify some affordable opportunities for improvement to priority areas - a commitment that had previously been put on hold for three years by the MoD.
The Legion is an independent member of the Covenant Reference Group, set up to scrutinise the application of the Covenant across public life, which the new Ministerial Committee will work with. The charity welcomes the progress to date in implementing the Covenant, but says that making its benefits a reality for the whole of the Armed Forces community in their daily lives will require "constant vigilance".
The Legion campaigned successfully for the core principles of the Covenant to be written into law, so that fairness for the Armed Forces community could be put to public scrutiny. These principles are the unique nature of Service, that no disadvantage should arise from Service and that special treatment should apply in certain circumstances.
The charity also recently succeeded in persuading the Government to preserve the role of the Chief Coroner as a key element of the Covenant's support for bereaved Armed Forces families.
Chris Simpkins,
Director General, The Royal British Legion, said:
"The Legion's Honour the Covenant campaign began
in 2007 and progress since then has been genuinely impressive. We
applaud the Prime Minister's key interventions that committed the
Government to making the principles of the Covenant law and to
appointing a Chief Coroner, which we saw as a key test of the
Covenant.
"Action is now needed to address how the principle of special treatment can help those wounded or injured in the defence of our country; to improve support for reservists, who will have an increasingly significant role, and their families; and to recognise the needs of veterans by creating a complaints body or process for them, such as serving personnel already have.
"We welcome the commitment to create a Ministerial Committee to champion Covenant issues. It is vital that all parts of Government and the public sector, as well as Service charities, continue to work to ensure the principles of the Covenant improve the day-to-day experiences of our brave Service men and women and their families. The Legion, as well as Parliament itself, will continue to hold the Government to account on this."
Areas in need of urgent focus before the next Covenant Report in a year's time, the Legion believes, are:
- how the long-term application of the Covenant's principle of special treatment can help the wounded, injured and sick
- how the Covenant can improve support for reservists, and their families, given increasing reliance on them within the nation's defences
- the need for a process or body to deal with veterans' complaints, such as serving personnel already have
- higher priority within the MoD for managing its people and improving the communication of the benefits of the Covenant to the Service community.
