MP: Armed Forces Bill will see Covenant ‘fully implemented in Northern Ireland’

The Covenant is an informal commitment by the government to give fair support to serving military personnel, their families and veterans.

However fulfilling the promise in NI has been fraught with difficulty as nationalists have argued giving military families special treatment in housing or schooling was discriminatory.

 The UK government’ new Armed Forces Bill seeks to strengthen the Armed Forces Covenant in law, helping ensure that service personnel are not disadvantaged because of their service.

Mr Donaldson said the New Decade New Approach agreement has seen the Government meet its commitment to appoint NI first Veterans’ Commissioner, appointed in August.

“The agreement committed the government to UK-wide legislation to further incorporate the Armed Forces Covenant into law and support its full implementation,” he said.

“The Secretary of State was clear in his commitment today that the Armed Forces Bill will treat Northern Ireland exactly the same as other parts of the United Kingdom with full implementation of the Covenant.”

He added that the failure to fully implement the Covenant in NI until now has “let down our veterans and this move should end that injustice”.

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