Defence committee

Debate between Judith Cummins and Calvin Bailey

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. There are no interventions during the statement.

[Mr Bailey]

As we say in our report, the covenant gives us all a duty to our servicemen and women. We must take it as seriously as they have taken their duty to us. I commend the report to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Bailey]

I thank the hon. Member for her powerful and incisive question. The armed forces continuous attitude survey consistently shows that the armed forces feel as though the covenant is not applied. Two figures that just fall out of the report are that about 31% of our service personnel feel as though the covenant is not being applied to them in terms of the NHS, and about 40% feel the same in terms of education. The net upshot of those failings is the continual erosion of the feeling among service families and service personnel that they are being supported by the state and broader society. One in three people who enter the military do so as a result of meeting someone in the military. If we apply those figures to that number of people, we must expect that they are not passing on a good story. That will continue to erode people’s ability to join the services, which is why this is so important.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

Order. I ask that the final few questions and answers be a bit shorter.