A Covenant without teeth, alongside unreformed advocacy law

The Civil Society Covenant (July 2025) is non-statutory, with no adjudication or redress when public bodies breach its principles; its Local Covenant Partnerships Fund (£11.59m) covers just 15 of 300+ English local authority areas. Meanwhile the legal environment contradicts the partnership rhetoric: the Lobbying Act 2014's Part 2 rules still chill charity campaigning (government has rejected amendment calls), CIVICUS has rated UK civic space 'obstructed' since 2023, and Human Rights Watch (January 2026) documents escalating protest restrictions. NCVO, ACEVO and Bond monitor and advocate, but no independent mechanism exists to enforce the government–civil society relationship or audit civic-space health.

The Covenant is the government's flagship civil-society policy; if it remains exhortatory while advocacy and protest law tightens, trust between state and sector, already damaged, will erode further, and charities will keep self-censoring on policy issues where their front-line evidence matters most.

A statutory duty on public bodies to have regard to Covenant principles, with an independent review/ombudsman function reporting to Parliament; reform of Lobbying Act Part 2 (raising thresholds, clarifying issue-based campaigning); and a funded rollout of local covenant partnerships beyond the 15 pilot areas.

// State-led: Instrument: statutory have-regard duty plus Lobbying Act Part 2 reform; primary legislation.

Reform means primary legislation the government has already rejected, so despite chilling advocacy law the flagship covenant stays exhortatory; the fight is hard with no dated trigger forcing action.