Guidance

Appeals: guide to the data submission process

Updated 2 September 2022

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.
We collect the data on behalf of CCEA Regulation and share this data with them.

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.

What data will be collected?

Appeals data will be collected for GCSE, AS, A level, Project levels 1, 2 and 3 and Advanced Extension Awards.

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. Appeals with multiple grounds should have rows of data repeated for each ground given in the ‘Nature of appeal’ field
2. Data showing the preliminary stage of an appeal should remain in each submission, even if the appeal progresses to the appeal hearing stage
3. Appeals involving centre staff should have a unique identifier preceded by ‘Staff_’. For example, Staff_123456A. This should be entered into the UCI field
4. The Post Appeal qualification UMS (modular) or Scale score (linear) and the Post Appeal qualification grade fields, should reflect the overall outcome at the qualification level - therefore, if a candidate has an appeal on more than one unit for the same specification the values in these fields should be consistent, even if one of the units did not result in a change
5. This also applies to appeals progressing to an appeal hearing (stage 2) - if the grade change did not occur until stage 2, the row of data for stage 1 must still show the grade change
   • Identification of which unit or stage resulted in the change will be made possible from the unit level fields
6. Grades should still be reported regardless of whether the appeal was upheld or not
7. Data on all appeals received should be included, even if they do not progress to Stage 1
   • Please provide as much information as possible for appeals which do not progress to Stage 1 - these cases should have a value of ‘Pre-Stage 1’ for the fields ‘Current Stage of Appeal’ and ‘What Stage Was Appeal Resolved’
8. Please submit Case Ref No. of appeals at component level - by this we mean that in cases where multiple units are appealed for the same candidate and grade, and are submitted on the same day, each appealed unit should have a different Case Ref No.
   • We would still expect that where a centre appeals on behalf of a group of candidates, or a cohort, they can continue to be grouped together under the same Case Ref No, if it is for the same component
9. If an appeal progresses to an appeal hearing, the ‘What Stage Was Appeal Resolved’ field should please match the current stage of the appeal - for instance the row for the preliminary appeal stage should read ‘Stage 1’ in the ‘What Stage Was Appeal Resolved field’ and the row for the appeal hearing stage should read ‘Stage 2’

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.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
Exam Series	Exam series data relates to, for example June 2021	1	^(June|November|January)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$	Full month name of exam series and year.
Reporting Date	Date the file was due to be submitted regardless of when it was actually uploaded. Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd.	2	^(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).
Awarding Organisation	Name of the awarding organisation	3	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted
Case Ref No.	Unique identifier for appeal case. Awarding organisations to supply unique identifier in any appropriate format.	4	^.{1,25}$	1 to 25 characters accepted
Centre No.	Centre number (NCN)	5	^\d{1,5}$	Up to 5-digit integer accepted. -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1 and the centre number is unknown.
Unique Candidate Identifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI)	6	^.{1,13}$	Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted. This field can also be used for unique centre staff identifier where relevant. -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1 and UCI is unknown.
QAN	Qualification Accreditation Number, for example 123/1234/1	7	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted. -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Specification title	Specification title also known as subject title	8	^.{1,150}$	1 to 150 characters accepted. -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Specification code	Specification code also known as Subject Award Code and Cash-in Code	9	^.{1,7}$	1 to 7 characters accepted. -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Specification Tier	To indicate if specification has tiering. N for No Y for Yes	10	^(N|Y|-2)	One of the following list: N, Y -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Tier	To indicate the specification tier if applicable. F for Foundation H for Higher	11	^(F|H|-2)$	One of the following list: F, H -2 accepted where not applicable. -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Qualification level	Level of qualification, for example, GCSE	12	^(GCSE|GCSE linear|GCSE full course|GCSE short course|AS|A level|Project L1|Project L2|Project L3|AEA|-2)$	One of the following list: GCSE, GCSE linear, GCSE full course, GCSE short course, AS, A level, Project L1, Project L2, Project L3 or AEA. -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Date received	Date received	13	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	DATETIME in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits), a space, hour (2 digits), a colon, minutes (2 digits), a colon, seconds (2 digits). If time is not recorded please just submit a date yyyy-mm-dd.
Date completed	Date completed For appeals progressed to Stage 1 or 2, defined as the date when an appeal is completed and decision letter is sent. For Pre-Stage 1 appeals, the date when a response was sent to the parent, candidate or centre.	14	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	DATETIME in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits), a space, hour (2 digits), a colon, minutes (2 digits), a colon, seconds (2 digits). 2999-12-31 00:00:00.000 accepted for appeals still in process. If time is not recorded please just submit a date yyyy-mm-dd.
Nature of appeal	Nature of appeal	15	^( Malpractice| Maladministration|Review of moderation - marking error|Review of moderation - procedural|Review of Marking - procedural|Review of marking - marking error|Reasonable adjustment or special consideration|-2)$	Accepted values: Malpractice Maladministration Review of moderation - marking error Review of moderation - procedural Review of marking - procedural Review of marking - marking error Reasonable adjustment or special consideration -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1 and nature of appeal is unknown.
Current stage of appeal	Current stage of appeal at the time data reported	16	^(Pre-Stage 1| Stage 1|Stage 2|N/A - referred to EPRS)$	Accepted values: Pre-Stage 1 Stage 1 Stage 2 N/A - referred to EPRS
What stage was appeal resolved	Stage appeal was resolved	17	^(Pre-Stage 1| Stage 1|Stage 2|With AO but still in process|N/A - referred to EPRS|Remitted back to AO from EPRS)$	Accepted values: Pre-Stage 1 Stage 1 Stage 2 With AO but still in process N/A - referred to EPRS Remitted back to AO from EPRS.
Appeal upheld	To indicate if the appeals was upheld	18	^(Y|N|TBC|-2)$	Y, N, or TBC accepted values -2 accepted where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Reason appeal did not proceed	For Pre-Stage 1 appeals only, to indicate the reason why the appeal did not progress to Stage 1	19	^(withdrawn by centre|Invalid grounds|No ROMM application|Cancelled by AO|Invalid application|-2)$	Accepted values: Withdrawn by centre Invalid grounds No ROMM application Cancelled by AO Invalid application -2 expected where Current stage of appeal is not Pre-stage 1.
Pre Appeal unit raw mark	Raw mark at beginning of appeal	20	^\d{1,3}$	Three-digit integer accepted. NB: Mark at beginning of Appeals stage rather than original mark. For example, original mark of 44, changed to 46 at review of marking stage but candidate still went on to appeals stage – awarding organisation should enter 46. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Post Appeal raw mark	Raw mark after appeal	21	^\d{1,3}$	Three-digit integer. -2 accepted where the post appeal raw mark is unknown. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Pre Appeal unit UMS	Unit UMS at beginning of appeal	22	^\d{1,3}$	Three-digit integer accepted. A float value also accepted for a three-digit integer with up to two decimal places. -2 accepted for subjects that do not convert to UMS. NB: Mark at beginning of Appeals stage rather than original mark. For example, original mark of 44, changed to 46 at review of marking stage but candidate still went on to appeals stage – awarding organisation should enter 46. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Post Appeal UMS	Unit UMS after appeal	23	^\d{1,3}$	Three-digit integer accepted. A float value also accepted for a three-digit integer with up to two decimal places. -2 accepted for subjects that do not convert to UMS or value unknown. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Pre Appeal qualification UMS (modular) orb Scale score (linear)	Qualification mark at beginning of appeal	24	^\d{1,3}$	Three-digit integer accepted. Float also accepted for a three digit integer with up to two decimal places. -2 accepted for subjects that do not convert to UMS. Note: Candidates with an appeal that involves multiple units/ components on the same specification should have consistent original qualification UMS across all units. NB: Mark at beginning of Appeals stage rather than original mark. For example, original mark of 44, changed to 46 at review of marking stage but candidate still went on to appeals stage – awarding organisation should enter 46. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Post Appeal qualification UMS (modular) / Scale score (linear)	Qualification mark after appeal	25	^\d{1,3}$	Three-digit integer accepted. A float value also accepted for a three-digit integer with up to two decimal places. -2 accepted for subjects that do not convert to UMS or value unknown. Note: Candidates with an appeal that involves multiple units/components on the same specification should have consistent post qualification UMS across all units. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Pre Appeal qualification grade	Qualification grade at beginning of appeal	26	^(A*|A*A*|A*A|AStar|AStarAStar|AStarA|AA|AB|BB|BC|CC|CD|DD|DE|EE|EF|FF|FG|GG|UU|A|B|C|C*|D|E|F|G|U|X|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|11|21|22|32|33|43|44|54|55|65|66|76|77|87|88|98|99|-2)$|^(A*|A*A*|A*A|AStar|AStarAStar|AStarA|AA|AB|BB|BC|CC|CD|DD|DE|EE|EF|FF|FG|GG|UU|A|B|C|C*|D|E|F|G|U|X|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|11|21|2-2|3-2|3-3|43|4-4|5-4|5-5|6-5|6-6|7-6|7-7|8-7|8-8|9-8|9-9|-2)$	One of the following list: Merit, Distinction, A, A Star, AA, A Star A Star, AA, A Star A, AA, AA, AB, BB, BC, CC, CD, DD, DE, EE,EF, FF, FG, GG, A, B, C, C, D, E, F, G, U, X, 9-1, 9-9 to 1-1 and any of the grades listed, followed by a number from 1 to 5 (for example C3) -2 also accepted for unknown or not applicable value. NB: Qualification grade at beginning of appeals stage rather than original grade. For example, original grade D, changed to C at review of marking stage, but candidate still went on to appeals stage – awarding organisation should enter C. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Post Appeal qualification grade	Qualification grade after appeal	27	^(A*|A*A*|A*A|AStar|AStarAStar|AStarA|AA|AB|BB|BC|CC|CD|DD|DE|EE|EF|FF|FG|GG|UU|A|B|C|C*|D|E|F|G|U|X|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|1-1|2-1|2-2|3-2|3-3|4-3|4-4|5-4|5-5|6-5|6-6|7-6|7-7|8-7|8-8|9-8|9-9|-2)$	One of the following list: Merit, Distinction, A, A Star, AA, A Star A Star, AA, A Star A, AA, AA, AB, BB, BC, CC, CD,DD, DE, EE,EF, FF, FG, GG, A, B, C, C, D, E, F, G, U, X, 9-1, 9-9 to 1-1 and any of the grades listed, followed by a number from 1 to 5, for example. C3. -2 also accepted for unknown or not applicable value. -2 accepted for teacher appeals and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Unit code	Unit code	28	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted. Note: If a unit has sub-components, they should be identifiable from a unique value within the unit code, for example MA02 1, MA02 2. -2 accepted where not available or not applicable and where current stage of appeal is Pre-Stage 1.
Date script requested	Date script requested (at any stage during the post-results service process)	29	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	DATETIME in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits), a space, hour (2 digits), a colon, minutes (2 digits), a colon, seconds (2 digits). Not applicable or for appeals that have not had a script request, a value of 2999-12-31 00:00:00.000 may be entered. If time is not recorded please just submit a date yyyy-mm-dd.
Date reason requested	Date reason requested	30	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]\|1[012])[-](0[1-9]\|[12][0-9]\|3[01])$	DATE in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits). Where not applicable or for appeals where the reason was not requested a value of 2999-12-31 may be entered.

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