Encouragement, not evaluation: how to handle the Armed Forces Covenant in tenders
PPN 008 is a short note with an unusually precise instruction. Departments should encourage suppliers to sign the Armed Forces Covenant by including a set piece of text in tender documents, and at the same time must ensure that signing plays no part whatsoever in the procurement: not a condition of participation, not an award criterion, not a contract term. Holding both of those at once is harder than it sounds, because well intentioned teams keep finding places to give credit for good behaviour. This one has to stay strictly outside the decision.
Why the separation exists
The Covenant is a voluntary pledge, brought in under the Armed Forces Act 2011, recognising a moral obligation to redress the disadvantages the armed forces community face compared to other citizens. Its two principles concern no disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services, and special consideration in some cases, particularly for the injured and the bereaved.
Voluntary is the operative word. Turning a voluntary pledge into a procurement requirement would exclude suppliers on grounds unrelated to their ability to deliver, and would convert a genuine commitment into a form filling exercise. The Annex A wording removes that risk explicitly, telling suppliers the issue will not form part of the process.
That is why the note is an information note, phrased with should consider rather than must. It gives departments a way to use their reach without using their leverage.
Where the process risk actually sits
The failure mode is not deliberate. It is a social value question that awards points for veteran employment referencing the Covenant, or an evaluator who notices a signatory logo and forms a favourable impression, or a contract schedule that carries the wording forward from the tender pack into terms.
The control is straightforward. Keep the Annex A text in one clearly informational place, exclude it from questionnaires and scoring guidance, and brief evaluators that it is not a factor. If your documents are assembled from templates, check the template rather than each competition.
There is a legitimate adjacent route. Where workforce, training or employment outcomes are genuinely relevant to the contract, those can be addressed on their own merits through the appropriate mechanism. What cannot happen is credit for the pledge itself.
For suppliers: sign it because you mean it
For suppliers the note removes the commercial calculation entirely. Signing the Covenant will not win you a contract, and not signing will not lose you one. That leaves only the honest reason to do it, which is that the commitments match how you want to run your business.
The Corporate Covenant text sets out what those commitments typically look like: promoting yourself as armed forces friendly, supporting employment of veterans including through the Career Transition Partnership, supporting service spouses and partners, offering flexibility around deployment, accommodating Reserve forces training, supporting local cadet units, participating in Armed Forces Day, and offering a discount to the armed forces community.
Signatories are asked to publicise their commitments and invite feedback on how they are doing. That accountability is the point. A pledge that nobody outside the organisation knows about achieves very little for the community it names.
The takeaways
- PPN 008 asks departments to include set text encouraging suppliers to sign the Armed Forces Covenant.
- The Covenant must not be a condition of participation, an award criterion or a contract term.
- It is an information note, updated February 2025 for Procurement Act 2023 terminology, with no policy change.
- Pre 24 February 2025 procurements are covered by the earlier note, PPN 06/16.
- The update does not incorporate amendments made by the Armed Forces Act 2021.
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