RSSeNEWS to be determined...

The RSS has honoured three teams with the newly established awards for Excellence in Official Statistics, which were presented at the Society's 2010 awards ceremony on 30 June.

The judges chose joint winners for the Innovation and development award:

• Local level gas and electricity statistics by Julian Prime, Laura Williams and Harriet Addison, from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
  
• The Life Opportunities Survey by the ONS LOS team: Buffy Matthews, Rachael Ryan, Kara Banahan, David Duncan, Jo Bulman and Tom Howe

The Communication and dissemination award was made for the ONS's Ageing in the UK graphic by Alan Smith and Shayla Goldring.

The Excellence in Official Statistics awards reward and promote good practice in the field of official statistics, specifically focusing on meeting the needs of the wider user community. The RSS is looking for examples of excellent presentation of official statistics, and examples of innovative practices that have improved statistical information for users.

Innovation and development

The award is given to the best example of an innovative statistical practice that has improved statistical information for users. The nominees will have either employed new statistical techniques to improve the statistical information available, or developed statistical systems and processes that have strengthened the quality and robustness of the statistics. The winners will have demonstrated how they have identified the needs of users so as to innovate and further develop the service being provided to them as customers.

The judges commented that the local level gas and electricity statistics represented "a new and valuable statistical service from small area private-sector administrative data. Low cost and effective, with clear evidence of direct and immediate user benefit and public value." In particular, there was clear evidence of user engagement, and "... the work was clearly done in response to user needs".

The Life Opportunities Survey impressed the judges with its “innovative approach in design of the survey using a reference group of disabled views throughout the development process … Disability is a sensitive and multi-facetted topic and so the benefit of allowing for a range of definitions of disability to be derived and compared from the one source is a real advantage.”

Communication and dissemination

The award is made for the best example of clear presentation of official statistics, taking account of the needs and understanding of its primary audience, and the full range of other potential users. The winning entry will be a clear example of good practice of user-focused presentation of statistics.

The Ageing in the UK graphic demonstrated an "excellent use of dynamic and interactive graphics. Exactly the sort of tool which will encourage user engagement," said the judges.