The Queen's Awards for Enterprise | |
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Awarded for | Business innovation and performance. |
Country | United Kingdom |
Presented by | The Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister. |
First awarded | 1966 |
Official website | https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise |
The Queen's Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for British businesses and other organizations who excel at international trade, innovation or sustainable development. They are the highest official UK awards for British businesses. The scheme was established as The Queen's Award to Industry by a royal warrant of 30 November 1965, and individual categories have been known in the past as The Queen's Awards for Export, Export Achievement, Technology, Technological Achievement and Environmental Achievement. The scheme also includes an award for individuals, The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion.
The Queen's Award to Industry, the scheme's original title, was instituted by Royal Warrant in 1965, and first awarded in 1966, and it was only offered to organizations. The awards were always listed in the London Gazette as "for export achievement", "for technological innovation", or both, though there were no formal classes. The recommendations of a review in 1975 led to the scheme becoming The Queen's Awards for Export and Technology, with separate awards for outstanding achievement in each of the two fields. The Queen's Award for Environmental Achievement was added in 1992. Following a review in 1999, chaired by Charles, Prince of Wales, the three separate Awards were replaced and are now known generically as The Queen's Awards for Enterprise with three broad-based categories for organizations: International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development. In 2005, the individual award, The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion (QAEP) was added to the programme. The award is for achievement in enterprise promotion, between five and ten awards have been made annually in addition to one lifetime achievement award and sometimes an honorary award (three such awards have been made as of 2015).
In 1990 a set of commemorative stamps featuring the Queens Awards for Enterprise was issued by the Post Office.
To be awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade, a company must show a substantial and sustained increase in export earnings over three consecutive 12-month periods, to a level which is outstanding for the products and services concerned, and for the size of the organisation. Different requirements are set for the award in the categories of Innovation and Sustainable Development. Awards are made on the advice of the Prime Minister after examination of applications by an Advisory Committee composed of leading individuals from industry, commerce, trade unions and government. The awards are conferred by the reigning British monarch on his or her birthday every year. For Her Majesty Elizabeth II this is 21 April.