diff --git a/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/__init__.py b/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/__init__.py
index c92b615444d854a6e87370b16cf733a5859a07e7..0ef0a2fa8cef86334fe94c0e5af1d979521398be 100644
--- a/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/__init__.py
+++ b/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,8 @@
 #  Copyright (C) 2023 ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy)
 #  SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+"""Statistics Writer module"""
+from pathlib import Path
+
+p = Path(__file__).with_name("VERSION")
+with open(p, encoding="utf-8") as f:
+    __version__ = f.readline().strip()
diff --git a/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/hdf5.py b/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/hdf5.py
index 2b2c25dfa94db72d0abb44cf998758cfa383f398..21a5ec5650a0e072bd19a3aa7c2ee198eddbccab 100644
--- a/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/hdf5.py
+++ b/lofar_station_client/statistics/writer/hdf5.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 # pylint: disable=R0902,R0913,W0703,W1404,C0301
 
 import logging
-import os
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
 from itertools import chain
@@ -22,6 +21,7 @@ from tango import DeviceProxy, DevFailed
 
 from lofar_station_client.dts.constants import A_pn, N_pol
 from lofar_station_client.file_access.hdf._hdf_writers import HdfFileWriter, create_hdf5
+from lofar_station_client.statistics import writer as stats_writer
 from lofar_station_client.statistics.collector import BSTCollector
 from lofar_station_client.statistics.collector import SSTCollector
 from lofar_station_client.statistics.collector import XSTCollector
@@ -58,10 +58,7 @@ def _get_station_version(device: DeviceProxy) -> str:
 
 def _get_writer_version() -> str:
     """Retrieve the Statistics Writer software version"""
-    filepath = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "VERSION")
-    with open(filepath, encoding="utf-8") as fpath:
-        version = fpath.readline().strip()
-    return version or ""
+    return stats_writer.__version__ or ""
 
 
 def _dict_to_hdf5_attrs(value_dict: dict) -> dict: