Conflict of interest policy
Purpose
Every entrant deserves to be judged by people with no stake in the result. This policy sets out how conflicts are declared and managed. The rules are enforced by the judging system, not left to individual judgment.
What counts as a conflict
A judge has a conflict with an entrant if any of the following apply:
- the judge works for the entrant organisation;
- the judge worked for the entrant organisation in the last two years;
- the entrant is a client, supplier or commercial partner of the judge or the judge's organisation;
- the judge has a close personal, family or reporting relationship with someone in the entry or the entrant's team.
Declarations
Entrants declare any family, reporting or commercial relationship with a member of the jury when they enter. Judges declare their conflicts after entries close, before they see any entries. The two sets of declarations are combined into a conflict matrix.
Recusal by category
A judge whose own organisation has entered a category takes no part in judging that whole category, not only their own organisation's entry. A judge with another conflict does not score the entry concerned, and the organisers may exclude them from the category.
The jury chair and co-chair
The chair and co-chair step back from any category that involves an organisation they work with. In that category, the other of the two leads. Each step-back is recorded in the recusal log.
Panels and scoring
Each category is judged by a panel of three judges with no conflict, and each entry is scored by at least two judges with no conflict. Judges score independently and do not see each other's scores until they have submitted their own. Where two judges' scores for an entry differ widely, the panel lead reviews it with the panel.
Independent scrutineer
An independent scrutineer, who does not score, has read-only access to all scores and the recusal log, and confirms that this policy was followed before results are confirmed.
Transparency
We publish the list of judges and their organisations, and the number of recusals in each category (without naming who recused).