The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is delighted to introduce a new award for its 2020 Statistical Excellence Awards; the Voluntary Application Award. Given in partnership with the Office for Statistics Regulation, we are also pleased to announce that Civil Service World are the media partner for the award.
This award rewards excellence in the voluntary application of the ‘pillars’ of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value (TQV) that stand at the heart of the Code of Practice for Statistics. ‘Voluntary application’ was introduced in 2018 by the Office for Statistics Regulation alongside the publication of its refreshed Code of Practice for Statistics. This is where an organisation commits to Trustworthiness, Quality and Value in how it produces and releases information even if the information is not classified as official statistics. This is available for organisations outside Government, and also for Government organisations publishing other types of information like research and open data.
Entrants will 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
Judged by an expert judging panel, the winner and runners-up will be announced at the RSS’s annual Statistical Excellence Awards ceremony in London on 12 May 2020.
Download the entry form online and submit your entries by 16 February 2020.
Baroness Onora O’Neill of Bengarve, leading judge for the award commented:
“This new award is an exciting opportunity for those pioneering organisations that have voluntarily applied the Code to their statistics to gain additional recognition for their public commitment to high quality and trustworthiness.”
Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation, UK Statistics Authority, said:
“I am delighted this award for voluntary application has been created to recognise the fantastic work that has been undertaken by a wide range of organisations, in applying the principles of the Code and enhance the public value for their users.”
Hetan Shah, Executive Director, Royal Statistical Society, said:
“The RSS is delighted to partner with the Office for Statistics Regulation on this new award. It’s important that statistics are credible, and this award will highlight those organisations that are voluntarily holding their statistics to a high benchmark.”
ENDS
Editors Notes
For further information please email va-award@rss.org.uk
The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is a charity and professional membership organisation that promotes the importance of statistics and data. We are a community of around 10,000 statisticians and data analysts with a vision of a world where data are at the heart of understanding and decision making.
Founded in 1834, we are one of the world’s most distinguished and renowned statistical societies with a global membership community of over 10,000 members who help us promote statistics, data and evidence for the public good.
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) is the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority. We provide independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK assessed against the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Code of Practice for Statistics applies to everyone in an organisation producing official statistics, including senior leaders, policy professionals, communications staff and other analysts. Official statistics should be compiled to the highest standards of quality to ensure decision-making is based on sound evidence.
Voluntary application of the Code is for any producer of data, statistics and analysis which are not official statistics, whether inside government or beyond, to help them produce analytical outputs that are high quality, useful for supporting decisions, and well respected. For more information about the Code of Practice, a list of the organisations that have already made a public commitment to VA and how it can be applied please visit the online Code site.