Office for National Statistics 

Census 2021 was the first digital-first census for England and Wales, and the UK’s largest online service.

The Digital Services and Technology (DST) teams at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) delivered a respondent focused online experience for over 22 million citizens.

Some 88.9% of households responded online, substantially exceeding a 75% target and clearly demonstrating the value in developing a culture of strong user centred design.

The Census 2021 digital service triumphed during the main response weekend (20 and 21 March 2021), where respondents completed and submitted a phenomenal 7.5 million questionnaires. These volumes were possible because of the scalable cloud native architecture that ONS built.

This nomination is about celebrating the dedication, hard work and resilience of the many hundreds of people who worked together across ONS in agile teams that designed, developed and delivered this service.