Mercury Theatre Colchester
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-10)

We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.

The Armed Forces Covenant

An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families

The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.

Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.

This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.

Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant

1.1 We Mercury Theatre Colchester will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment

2.1 Mercury Theatre Colchester recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Service Spouses And Partners
- Flexible Leave For Spouses
- UK Reservists
- UK Cadets
- Armed Forces Day
- Reserve Forces Day
- Discounts
- UK Wounded, Injured And Sick
We also pledge the following:

We will publicise our Corporate Covenant commitments through our website. We will display the Corporate Covenant logo in our brochure to show that members of the Armed Forces Community are welcome customers. We will work with the Career Transition Partnership to promote vacancies to veterans and service leavers We will always consider veterans, young and old, if they meet the selection criteria laid out in a job advert. We value military skills and qualifications when interviewing for new positions. We will advertise vacancies through service-friendly recruitment agencies and charities. We welcome applications from spouses and partners and will always consider applications if they meet the selection criteria laid out in a job advert. We will seek to be flexible in granting leave before, during or after a partner’s overseas deployment, particularly when the Service person has leave to spend time with their family. We will encourage reservists on our staff to participate in Uniform to Work Day. We will accommodate reservists’ training commitments wherever possible. We understand that this is usually a number of weekends and a two-week training camp each year. We may allow reservists to take normal annual leave for this two week camp, and where possible we will consider additional unpaid leave. We will endeavour to accommodate mobilisation of our reservists if they are required to deploy. We understand that this would usually be for a six month deployment as well as pre-deployment training and post-deployment recuperation. We will work with cadet units to make our facilities available at reduced cost wherever possible. We will work with cadet units to provide theatre workshops, access to practitioners or ‘behind the scenes’ events such as Page to Stage. We will display Armed Forces Day signage and/or flag(s), and support the forces community in making our facilities available at reduced cost for use on Armed Forces Day wherever possible. We will display flyers for other charitable Armed Forces Day events. We will make discounts for most Made In Colchester-produced theatre available through the Defence Discount Service. We will accommodate veterans from Chavasse VC House, who have suffered life changing injuries and illnesses, free of charge at our Made in Colchester produced theatre wherever possible. We will work with touring companies to make discounts available (through the Defence Discount Service) for touring theatre where possible.

2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.