The UK Jewellery Awards Charter

For almost 35 years the UK Jewellery Awards have existed, and thrived, as the industry they support has evolved, innovated, and faced challenges in ways that would have been unimaginable at their inception back in 1993.

The key to the Awards’ enduring success is surprisingly simple. Open to all industry stakeholders, they offer a platform that acknowledges excellence and innovation from all areas of the UK jewellery trade, with a rigorous judging process conducted by acknowledged independent experts that is completely free of any commercial influence. It is the judges’ gracious donation of time, energy and knowledge that ensures the UK Jewellery Awards remain the most valued accolades in the industry. A quick glance at the lists of winners from recent years will show company size is not a pre-requisite to determine success – with individual designers, start-ups and SMEs often mixing with major manufacturers and multiple retailers.

The Guiding Rules and Principles of the UK Jewellery Awards are as follows:

  1. Open to all companies active in the UK and Irish jewellery industry – large and small
  2. The only way to enter the awards is to make a submission via the online portal. To maintain our complete impartiality, Retail Jeweller will never put forward entrants to the Awards, unless in specified “nominated” categories.
  3. Entrants are required to submit substantial, qualitative evidence to support their submission.
  4. Independent judges are invited each year to join a panel judges. With substantial and wide individual experience, as a panel, they combine to provide real expertise across all areas of the UK jewellery industry.
  5. All Judges sign an NDA, confirming they will neither share or otherwise seek to benefit from information contained within award entries.
  6. Judges will have a two-week period to assess entries online in private, before convening to discuss their thoughts and findings in a roundtable setting
  7. Following the roundtable, judges make their selection for the winner in each category via a secret ballot, so no one leaves the judging room knowing the eventual winner in each category
  8. Judges are recused from assessing any category where their own company has entered to avoid direct conflict of interest. In these occasions, judges will not be permitted to see entries to that category.
  9. Judging is strictly independent and free of any external influence or commercial pressure. Retail Jewellerprovides the platform, but will not, and cannot, seek to influence the judge’s decisions, nor will we permit any event sponsors to do the same. To keep this separation absolutely clear, sponsors of the event may not sponsor an award category they also wish to enter.