Guidance

VTQ Malpractice: guide to the data submission process

Updated 11 December 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

In order to fulfil our regulatory and accreditation functions as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, we require awarding organisations to provide exams delivery data for regulated qualifications.

What data will be collected?

Data on all malpractice cases investigated, including offence type and any sanctions applied during the latest, full academic year (1 September to 31 August) for learners in centres in England (besides for ESOL qualifications, where non-England data is also required – details below).

The data should only include sanctions which relate to offences committed during the academic year. Sanctions for offences committed outside of these time periods should not be included. For example, a sanction applied in 2023 to 2024 for an offence committed in 2022 to 2023 should not be included.

Data will be collected for:

• all Key Stage 4 Performance Table Qualifications (PTQs) excluding GCSE
• 16 to 18 Performance Table qualifications (PTQs) excluding AS, A Level, the Level 3 Project, Advanced Extension Award (AEA) and T Levels
• functional Skills Qualifications (FSQs)
• other General Qualifications
• all English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) qualifications delivered by awarding organisations who provide secure English language tests (SELTs) – for ESOL qualifications only, data relating to Wales, Northern Ireland; other UK and non-UK learners is also required
• selected additional qualifications (to be communicated with awarding organisations annually)

When will data be collected?

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is agreed and maintained by Ofqual’s data services team.

Updates to formats and guidance

This guidance document will be updated regularly. Any changes to procedure will be incorporated into the guidance document.

How to submit your data

Your data should be submitted to us in CSV format. Please refer to the ‘Connecting to Ofqual’s data portal and uploading data’ document on our web page to help you submit your files to us. If you need to ask us about a data submission please contact the Data Services team. Please do not send your data files via email to Data Services or to any other Ofqual email address, or via Contact the Regulator in the Portal.

Uploaded data

Once files have been successfully uploaded, the data will be validated against a set of validation rules. These are detailed in the sections below. If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into our systems and you will receive email confirmation. If the file is unsuccessful at any stage of validation you will receive an email with details of the validation failure. Please correct your file and resubmit it.

Amendments to data

Ofqual staff will not alter data once it has been submitted. If you find an error or omission after you’ve had a successful upload, please notify us by email. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

How your data will be used

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities and, where required, to produce Official Statistics to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

General completion guidelines

1. Please see the appendices for further clarification of field values.
2. Numeric values must not have any formatting.
3. All malpractice cases that are investigated should be reported. If there is insufficient evidence to issue a penalty this information should be supplied.
4. Acts of malpractice which are explicitly linked (for example, two candidates suspected of colluding together or committing disruptive acts together, or a centre staff member and candidate suspected of working together to commit malpractice) should be allocated the same malpractice case identifier. Acts of malpractice which are not explicitly linked should be allocated different malpractice case identifiers. Where it is unclear whether malpractice acts are linked, awarding organisations should exercise their judgement in assigning case identifiers based on the evidence provided.
5. If the malpractice case is still open when the data is reported, ‘case ongoing outcome TBD’ should be recorded in the type of penalty issued field. In these cases, if the type of offence is unknown, please also report ‘case ongoing’ in the type of offence field.
6. Please enter the value of ‘-2’ in the Centre Identifier, Centre name and postcode fields for candidates who are not registered to a centre.
7. In the event of systemic cases, where the specific subject information is unknown, for instance, Security Breaches or Maladministration, then ‘Non-assessment specific’ should be entered in the specification title field. The value of ‘-2’ should also be entered into other related fields if unknown, for example, Qualification Number, specification code, assessment code etc.
8. All fields are compulsory. Some fields permit a value of ‘-2’ to signify where the field is not applicable or not available for the row of data in question.
9. If a candidate has taken an assessment at a different centre from the one where they undertake their learning then the centre details provided must be those of the centre at which the malpractice took place.
10. For malpractice cases involving more than one candidate, please submit one row of data per candidate involved. For instance, if a malpractice incident involved 4 candidates please submit 4 rows of data.

File format

The file must be CSV format and the first row must be headers as displayed in the ‘Name’ column of the table below. The subsequent rows must have the values of the data to be reported which must match the format and validation rules below.

NB. If a file needs to be submitted again, any previous files submitted will need to be rejected by Ofqual’s Data Services team before an updated file can be submitted.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
ReportingDate	Date the file was due to be submitted regardless of when it was actually uploaded.	1	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits). Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd.
AcademicYear	Academic year that the offence was committed.	2	^(20)\d\d[-](20)\d\d $	The academic year in the following format: start year (4 digits), a dash, end year (4 digits) . Format accepted yyyy-yyyy.
AssessmentDate	Date the assessment was taken by the candidate. In the case of assessments which take place over multiple days, please provide the date it was submitted for marking or grading. If no date is available, please provide 2999-12-31.	3	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits). Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd. 2999-12-31 accepted if no date is available.
CertificationDate	Date the certificate was awarded to the candidate for the qualification. If the certification date is not yet known or not applicable, please provide 2999-12-31.	4	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits). Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd.
AwardingOrganisation	Name of the awarding organisation.	5	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted.
MalpracticeCaseIdentifier	Unique malpractice case identifier (allocated by individual awarding organisations). Acts of malpractice which are explicitly linked (for example, two candidates suspected of colluding together or committing disruptive acts together, or a centre staff member and candidate suspected of working together to commit malpractice) should be allocated the same malpractice case identifier. Acts of malpractice which are not explicitly linked should be allocated different malpractice case identifiers. Where it is unclear whether malpractice acts are linked, awarding organisations should exercise their judgement in assigning case identifiers based on the evidence provided. Must be unique across all years of data. If you reuse identifiers each year, please prefix the identifier with the year, for example, 201819/12345.	6	^.{1,25}$	1 to 25 characters accepted.
CentreNCN	Centre’s National Centre Number as allocated by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). [footnote 2]	7	^\d{1,5}$	Valid NCN code. Up to 5- digit integer accepted. -2 also accepted where centre does not have an NCN.
CentreURN	Centre’s Unique Reference Number as assigned by the Department for Education. [footnote 2]	8	^\d{1,6}$	Valid Centre URN up to 6- digit integer accepted. -2 also accepted where centre does not have a URN.
CentreIdentifierOther	Any other number allocated to the centre or assessment venue by individual awarding organisations. Must be provided if neither CentreNCN nor CentreURN are available. [footnote 2]	9	^.{1,15}$	1 to 15 characters accepted. -2 permitted where at least one of NCN or URN have been provided or for candidates who are not registered to a centre.
CentreName	Name of the centre.	10	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted. -2 accepted for candidates who are not registered to a centre.
CentrePostcode	Postcode of the centre.	11	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted. -2 accepted for candidates who are not registered to a centre.
Country	Name of country. Should be England for non-ESOL qualifications. For names of Non-UK countries, please use the FCDO geographical names index Please provide the region name (Scotland, Isle of Man, or Channel Islands) for Other UK regions	12	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted.
TypeOfMalpractice	To indicate type of malpractice (see Annex for guidance) .	13	^(Candidate|Centre|CentreStaff|Examiner)$	Accepted values: Candidate, Centre, Centre staff, Examiner. [footnote 3]
UniqueCandidateIdentifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) assigned to the candidate[footnote 4]	14	^.{1,13}$	A valid UCI. Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted. -2 accepted where the candidate does not have a UCI or in systemic cases. -2 required for centre, centre staff and examiner malpractice.
UniqueLearnerNumber	Unique Learner Number (ULN) for the candidate provided by the Learning Records Service. [footnote 4]	15	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted. -2 accepted where the candidate does not have a ULN or in systemic cases. -2 required for centre, centre staff and examiner malpractice.
CandidateIdentifierOther	Any other unique candidate number allocated by individual awarding organisation. Must be provided where neither UCI or ULN are available. [footnote 4]	16	^.{1,20}$	1 to 20 characters accepted. -2 permitted where at least one of UCI or ULN have been provided or in systemic cases. -2 required for centre, centre staff and examiner malpractice.
StaffIdentifier	Please provide an identifier to uniquely identify each individual member of staff involved in the malpractice allegation, whether examiner or centre staff member. This may take any format as long as it falls within the 20 characters permitted, but please do not provide staff names.	17	^.{1,20}$	1 to 20 characters accepted. -2 accepted for candidate or centre malpractice, in systemic cases, or where the investigation is ongoing and the number of staff members involved in the allegation is unknown.
QualificationNumber	Qualification Number, if known, for example, 123/1234/1.	18	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted. -2 also accepted for candidates not yet certificating or for systemic cases.
SpecificationCode	Specification code, if relevant. May also be known as subject code or pathway code.	19	^.{1,15}$	1 to 15 characters accepted. -2 also accepted where the specification code is not applicable.
SpecificationTitle	Specification title, if relevant. Must be provided if specification code is provided. Please provide value of ‘Non-assessment specific’ for systemic cases.	20	^.{1,150}$	1 to 150 characters accepted. -2 also accepted where the specification title is not applicable.
AssessmentCode	Assessment code. When one unit is assessed by one assessment, please provide the URN (Unit Reference Number).	21	^.{1,50}$	1 to 50 characters accepted. -2 also accepted where an assessment code is not applicable.
AssessmentType	To indicate type of assessment.	22	^(Internal|External|-2)$	Accepted values: Internal, External [please see the definition of external assessment (page 14) used by the Department for Education]. [footnote 5] -2 accepted for systemic cases.
AssessmentMethod	The assessment method as it relates to this case.	23	^(OnlineExam|Paper-basedExam|Performance task|-2)$	Accepted values: Online exam, Paper-based exam, Performance task [Please see the description of performance task][footnote 6]. -2 accepted for systemic cases
AssessmentSchedule	To indicate the schedule for external assessments.	24	^(Timetabled | On-demand (non- sessional)|On-demand (sessional)|-2)$	Accepted values: Timetabled, On-demand (non-sessional), On-demand (sessional), -2 Timetabled: the assessment can only be taken on a specified dates set by the AO On-demand, non-sessional: the exam can be taken at any time during the year On-demand, sessional: the exam can be taken at any time within exam windows specified by AOs -2 accepted for systemic cases, or for internal assessment
TypeOfOffence	Description of offence.	25	Accepted values as per pre-agreed list of offences.	Accepted values as per Annex B.
TypeOfPenaltyIssued	Description of penalty.	26	Accepted values as per pre-agreed list of penalties.	Accepted values as per Annex C.

Annex A: Malpractice types

Some guidance that may be helpful to understand the malpractice types is given below:

Malpractice

A breach of the regulations that might undermine the integrity of an exam may constitute malpractice. It includes maladministration and non-compliance with the regulations. It includes attempts by students to communicate with each other during an exam, and failures by examiners or school or college staff to comply with instructions from awarding organisations.

Candidate malpractice

Candidate malpractice means malpractice by a candidate in connection with any assessment or examination, including the preparation and authentication of centrebased assessment (internal assessment), the compilation of portfolios of evidence, presentation of practical work, the writing of an examination paper.

Centre staff malpractice

Centre staff include teachers, trainers, other staff or volunteers involved in delivering a course of study. It also includes those staff appointed in another capacity such as an invigilator, a prompter, reader or scribe.

Examiner

The value of ‘Examiner’ includes assessors of any kind who are not centre staff.

Centre malpractice

Instances of malpractice by centres can range from actions intended to give an unfair advantage to students in an exam or assessment to ignorance of, or inappropriate application of, the assessment regulations.

Annex B: Type of Offence

Please note that most of the offences given in this section are using the existing list used in JCQ guidance.

Centre and centre staff

Breach of security

Deception

Improper assistance to candidates

Failure to co-operate with an investigation

Maladministration

Failure to comply with regulations/AO policies for Reasonable Adjustments or Special Consideration

Case ongoing

Insufficient information

Inadequate teaching/assessment time

Tutor/examiner competency^{[footnote 7]}

Deception in applying Special consideration or Reasonable Adjustments

Improper assistance in applying Special Consideration or Reasonable Adjustments

Bias or discrimination

Examiner

Breach of security

Deception

Improper assistance to candidates

Failure to co-operate with an investigation

Maladministration

Failure to comply with regulations/AO policies for Reasonable Adjustments or Special Consideration

Case ongoing

Insufficient information

Examiner competency

Candidate

Case ongoing

Insufficient information

The alteration of any results document including certificates

A breach of instructions or advice of an invigilator supervisor or the awarding body in relation to the examination rules and regulations

Failing to abide by the conditions of supervision designated to maintain the security of the examinations

Collusion working collaboratively with other candidates beyond what is permitted

Copying from another candidate including the misuse of ICT

Allowing work to be copied e.g. posting written coursework on social networking sites prior to an examination/assessment

The deliberate destruction of work

Disruptive behaviour in the examination room or assessment session including the use of offensive language

Exchanging obtaining receiving passing on information or the attempt to which could be examination related by means of - talking

Exchanging obtaining receiving passing on information or the attempt to which could be examination related by means of - electronic written or non-verbal communication

Making a false declaration of authenticity

Allowing others to assist in the production of controlled assessments coursework or assisting others in the production of controlled assessments or coursework

Misuse of or attempted misuse of examination material and resources

Being in possession of confidential material in advance of the examination

Bringing into the exam room notes in the wrong format or prohibited annotations

The inclusion of inappropriate offensive or obscene material in scripts coursework or portfolios

Impersonation pretending to be someone else arranging for another person to take ones place in an examination or an assessment

Plagiarism unacknowledged copying from published sources including the internet incomplete referencing and excluding the misuse of artificial intelligence

Plagiarism misuse of artificial intelligence

Theft where the candidates work is removed or stolen

Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - Notes study guides and personal organisers

Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - Own blank paper

Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - Calculators dictionaries when prohibited

Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - Personal stereo including MP3 iPod or any other similar electronic devices

Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - Mobile phone or other electronic communicating devices

Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - watches (not smartwatches)

The unauthorised use of a memory stick or similar device where a candidate uses a word processor

Behaving in a way as to undermine the integrity of the examination

Annex C: Type of penalty issued

Please note that the penalties given in this section are using the existing list used in JCQ guidance.

Centre staff

Written warning

Training

Special conditions

Suspension/Debarment

No evidence to substantiate allegation

No penalty issued

Case ongoing outcome TBD

Referral to TRA (Teaching Regulation Agency)

Centres

Written warning

Review and report

Approval of specific assessment tasks

Additional monitoring or inspection

Removal of direct claims

Restrictions on examination and assessment materials

Independent invigilators

Suspension of candidate registrations or entries

Withdrawal of approval for a specific qualification

Withdrawal of centre recognition

No evidence to substantiate allegation

No penalty issued

Case ongoing outcome TBD

Examiner

Written warning

Training

Special conditions

Suspension/Debarment

Dismissal

No evidence to substantiate allegation

No penalty issued

Case ongoing outcome TBD

Candidates

Warning

Loss of marks for a section

Loss of marks for a component

Loss of all marks for a unit

Disqualification from a unit

Disqualification from all units

Disqualification from whole qualification

Disqualification from all qualifications in series

Candidate debarment

No evidence to substantiate allegation

No penalty issued

Case ongoing outcome TBD

Contacts

For all queries relating to the data collection process, amendments to data previously provided, or for general guidance. please contact:

Data services

Ofqual
2nd floor, 1 Friargate
Station Square
Coventry
CV1 2GN

Email Data.Services@ofqual.gov.uk

1. To allow us to identify the centre please provide at least one of CentreNCN, CentreURN or CentreIdentifierOther. If more than one is collected, please provide as many as are available. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. The value of ‘Examiner’ includes assessors of any kind who are not centre staff. ↩

3. To allow us to identify the learner please provide at least one of UniqueCandidateIdentifier, UniqueLearnerNumber or CandidateIdentifierOther. If more than one is collected, please provide as many as are available. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. External assessment is a form of assessment in which question papers, assignments and tasks are specified by the awarding organisation, then taken under specified conditions (including details of supervision and duration) and marking or assessment judgements are made by the awarding. organisation. It does not include moderation or verification of centre-based assessment undertaken by an awarding organisation. ↩

5. Performance task is any task that is not a written exam (whether online on paper-based). In addition to performances such musical or drama, this category also includes other tasks such as presentations, professional discussions, a portfolio of evidence, and speaking exams. ↩

6. Tutor or examiner competency is defined here as examiners not having the experience/qualifications that they are supposed to have, or having out of date knowledge (for example, not being up to date with changes in requirements, legislation etc.). ↩