To celebrate her Golden Jubilee, The Queen announced a new, annual Award to recognise and reward excellence in voluntary activities carried out by groups in the community.

The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service (formerly known as The Queen's Golden Jubilee Award) is given for outstanding achievement by groups of volunteers who:

• regularly devote their time to helping others in the community
• improve the quality of life and opportunity for others
• provide an outstanding service

The nomination period for The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service 2008 has closed. The next round of nominations will open on 2 June 2008, when you will be able to nominate an exceptional group of volunteers for The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.

The Queen announced the Award during her address to both Houses of Parliament on 30 April 2002.

The Queen spoke of the Award in her Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth 2003.

The relevant part of the speeches, which are available below, can be listened to in 'wav' format (this will run using windows media player), viewed in flash format (you will require the flash plugin installed), or read by accessing the transcript.