Today, we are proud to announce the COVID-19 Dashboard Team from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) as winner of the Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality and Value, awarded in partnership with the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and Civil Service World.
This award recognises excellence in the voluntary application of the ‘pillars’ of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value (TQV) that stand at the heart of our Code of Practice for Statistics.
The UKHSA created the COVID-19 Dashboard to establish rates of COVID and vaccination across the UK, quickly becoming a main and trusted source of data on the pandemic. It has been used extensively by decision makers and wider, experiencing over 1 million users per day during peak times. These users include government ministers and other decision makers who rely on this information to help shape the UK’s COVID response, as well as the public making decisions about their daily lives. These statistics remain high-profile, are complicated to produce, receive daily scrutiny and much wider discussion, so must fully demonstrate trustworthiness, quality and value. This dashboard data continues to remain incredibly important to people as we move to the living with COVID phase of the government’s strategy. Read the full case study here.
Baroness Onora O’Neill of Bengarve, whose ‘Trustworthiness’ work inspired this award said:
“This award is now in its third year and is an excellent opportunity for outstanding statistics projects to show a strong public commitment to high quality and trustworthiness. I am delighted to see the COVID-19 Dashboard Team from UKHSA win this award, using the principles to enhance important public value for their users.”
Clare Griffiths, Head of COVID-19 Dashboard at UKHSA said:
“Honesty and transparency are core to the purpose of the dashboard. My team wanted to make COVID-19 data available to anyone that needs it. In the fast-changing context of the pandemic, we have worked hard to user test and develop the data as people’s needs change. We are truly delighted to win this award and continue to ensure the dashboard is a useful and relevant tool for all users.
Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation and lead judge said:
“We have enjoyed the third year of fantastic entries for this award and have identified a very worthy winner that has helped the nation understand the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a brilliant example of how to properly engage key audiences and the Code of Practice to ensure public confidence in critical statistics and data.”
Stian Westlake, Chief Executive of the Royal Statistical Society, said:
“This year’s winner has demonstrated a real commitment to trustworthiness, quality and value that stand at the heart of the Code of Practice for Statistics. The UKHSA are to be congratulated for their work during a difficult time, when the COVID-19 dashboard was essential for the entire population and their decision-making during the pandemic.
Members of the UKHSA COVID-19 dashboard team at the 2022 Statistical Excellence awards.