Campion Awards for Official Statistics 2018: Winners

The 2018 Campion award for excellence in official statistics was presented at an awards ceremony last night by UK Deputy National Statistician Iain Bell.

The award is named in honour of former RSS president, the late Sir Harry Campion, the first director in 1941 of what was then the UK Central Statistical Office and is given in partnership with the UK Statistics Authority. It celebrates good practice in UK government statistics and focuses on statistics for the public good. Civil Service World is the media partner for this year’s award.

There were nine shortlisted entries this year, said Iain Bell - the most we've had in a number of years and a testament to the high-quality work being produced by government statisticians. With stiff competition, the judges managed to narrow the field down to one winner and two runners-up, as follows:

Winner: 'The future farming and environment evidence compendium' – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
The judging panel thought this entry showed excellent use of administrative data with a direct impact on policy and communication with users. They liked the user testing and the way the product has been developed at two levels. 'It is an excellent publication which is enjoyable and educational to browse and clearly related to policy needs,' commented one judge.

First runner up: 'Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measures (NIMDM 2017)' - Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)
The judging panel thought this entry was an excellent bringing together of complex data and presentation at a very local level, in a politically-sensitive context. It showed true innovation in the development of income indicators as well as a regard to good practice elsewhere, useful for policy and delivered within budget.

Second runner up: 'Busting myths: application of new data sources and analyses' – Home Office and Office for National Statistics
The judging panel thought this piece of work dealt with a sensitive matter of real public interest. The statistics both informed the debate and corrected a misunderstanding. There was strong collaboration across boundaries, greatly improving the value of the statistics as a whole.

In addition to the winners and runners-up, the judges also wanted to draw attention to two other entries they thought worthy of a commendation for their innovative work which will help to make a step change in the infrastructure that supports the Government Statistical Service as a whole:

Data Science innovation for public good at the Office for National Statistics (the Data Science Campus)

The Code of Practice for Statistics

Other shortlisted entries included: