Guidance

Reporting malpractice allegations

Report allegations of malpractice to Ofqual and understand what to expect from us

• From: Ofqual
• Published: 20 July 2018
• Last updated: 31 July 2020 — See all updates

Applies to England

If you do not qualify as a whistleblower you may still wish to raise a concern about wrongdoing, risk or malpractice.

This may relate to:

• exams, such as GCSEs and A levels
• key stage tests (SATs)
• assessment of vocational or technical qualifications listed on the Register of Regulated Qualifications
• activities of exam boards or awarding bodies (also called awarding organisations) which we regulate

We encourage you to contact Ofqual if you wish to raise a concern (called ‘making a disclosure’) about the activities of awarding organisations and the qualifications they offer.

We take all reports of malpractice seriously, and anyone who reports malpractice to us will be told whether we are able to investigate their concerns or not.

We will:

• confirm receipt of your report within 3 working days, if you provided contact details
• contact you within another 10 working days to let you know if we can investigate your report or not

If we can look into your concern, we will:

• investigate your report if it relates to an awarding organisation that we regulate
• ask the awarding organisation to investigate your report if it is about a centre which delivers their qualification
• do our best to keep you informed, in general terms, of any investigation outcome - however we may not be able to do this if there are legal or confidentiality issues

We may:

• contact you for further information if needed
• share your details with the awarding organisation investigating the report
• share your information with other organisations, such as government departments, enforcement agencies and the police if we think it is necessary
• suggest another course of action if we consider that we are unable to look at your concerns

Report Malpractice

Report wrongdoing or malpractice using Ofqual’s complaints service.

Detail to provide in a malpractice disclosure

The more detail you can give us, the more it will help us assess your concern. It would be useful if you could provide information such as:

• details of the people and organisations involved, including where it has happened
• full details of your concerns, including the qualifications or subjects involved
• key dates
• any supporting documents and evidence

We do not encourage you to gather any further information from any source, whatever the circumstances. This might infringe privacy rights or other legal requirements. However, we may ask you to clarify the information you provide to us.

Privacy statement

It is necessary for us to collect and hold personal information about you in order to investigate your concerns relating to malpractice. This might be a concern about wrongdoing, risk or malpractice relating to exams, national assesments (SATs), assessment of regulated qualifications or the activities of awarding organisations we regulate.

We will hold the information you provide to us securely and use it to help us to investigate your concerns. For more information please see our malpractice privacy notice.

Published 20 July 2018
Last updated 31 July 2020 + show all updates

1. 31 July 2020

   Changed to point to the updated privacy notice and to link to the new service for reporting malpractice.

2. 20 July 2018

   First published.