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Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality & Value


The Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality & Value  (formerly the ‘Voluntary Application Award’) was established in 2020, in partnership with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and Civil Service World.

About the award
This award recognises excellence in the voluntary application of the 'pillars' of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value (TQV) that stand at the heart of OSR’s Code of Practice for Statistics.

Currently, the Code of Practice for Statistics applies to everyone in an organisation producing official statistics. ‘Voluntary application’ (VA), however, is where a producer of data, statistics and analysis, inside or outside government, commits to TQV in the way it produces and releases information even if it is not classified as official statistics.

Read about the 2024 winners. 

Criteria
Entrants need to demonstrate how they meet each of the following criteria:

  • A stated commitment to applying TQV in producing and sharing their information
  • Examples of how TQV have been applied to innovate or improve their information or processes
  • A demonstration of how public value has been enhanced by their application of the pillars.
Here are some additional pointers, drawing out some observations from our judging process in the previous years of the awards. These are not hard and fast rules about what makes for a successful entry but they are offered as potentially useful pointers.

Judges are interested to see: 
 
  • Any key hyperlinks to be included, enabling them sight of any relevant published material or dashboards;
  • Explanation of issues or problems and how they were overcome;
  • Use of evidence, metrics, evaluation to demonstrate project impact;
  • Any resource implications relevant to the project delivery;
  • Any internal or external engagement or collaboration that helped the project succeed, including anecdotal or supportive quotes;
  • Good presentation that makes it easy to read your entry, with appropriate sharing with a wider team or communications colleagues before submission to ensure key points are clear.
 

Please note, for projects focusing on official statistics, you should apply instead to the Campion Award for Excellence in Official Statistics. You cannot submit the same work to both awards.  

More information about the Code of Practice and a list of the organisations that have already made a public commitment to VA are available on the UK Statistics Authority website.

The 2025 award will open for entries in the new year