Guidance

Appeals in vocational and technical qualifications: guide to the data submission process

Updated 1 May 2026

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 the following data for regulated qualifications.

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities and to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

What data will be collected?

Data should relate to appeals made for assessments taken or decisions made for the time period and qualifications in scope of the collection.

Qualifications in scope

The following qualification types are in scope of this collection:

• Vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) that are included in the Department for Education’s performance tables (PTQs) for the academic year being submitted

  • Technical Awards
  • Technical Certificates
  • Tech Levels
  • Applied Generals
• Functional Skills Qualifications (FSQs)
• English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Skills for Life qualifications
• Core Maths
• International Baccalaureate Diploma qualifications

Countries in scope

Data should be included for all students in centres in:

• England

Time period in scope

Data for the latest, full academic year (1 September to 31 August). The data should only include appeals against assessments taken or decisions made during this time period, even if the outcome of the appeal is pending at time of data submission. Appeals made against assessments taken or decisions made outside of this time period should not be included. For example, an appeal that is made against an assessment taken in the 2023 to 2024 academic year and is not completed until 2024 to 2025 should be reported within the 2023 to 2024 submission, and not 2024 to 2025.

When data will be collected

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is updated regularly.

For the time period in scope of this collection, there will be more than one reporting deadline in order to capture the progress of the data at different points in time. These are indicated by the ‘collection number’ field in the reporting schedule. The data submitted should reflect the current status of all data for the relevant time period at the cut-off point stated. For example, the data given at the 2nd reporting deadline should still include the data from the 1st reporting deadline point but updated to reflect the current status of the data and with new rows added for any new records.

How to submit your data

Your data must be submitted to us in CSV format. Please refer to the Connecting to Ofqual’s data portal and uploading data document for more information. 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 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.

If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into Ofqual’s internal 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.

The specific validation rules which are in place for this template are detailed in the ‘validation rules’ and ‘file format’ sections below.

Amendments to data

Errors or omissions in the data

Once the data has been successfully uploaded, it will be checked by Ofqual staff. If an error or omission is spotted, the data may be queried, and you may be requested to resubmit it. We will need to reject your existing submission ahead of a resubmission.

If you find an error or omission after you’ve had a successful upload, please notify data services by email. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

If you wish to see your latest submission of a data return, for example to check the submission if it has been queried, please know it is available to download in the data portal.

Scheduled revisions of data

Each submission of this data is intended to show a snapshot in time. Therefore, there will be no resubmissions required to reflect any further updates to the data already submitted, unless an error or omission is spotted.

General completion guidelines

1. Numeric values must not have any formatting.
2. All fields are mandatory unless otherwise specified.
3. Submit one row of data per appeal stage per ground for appeal per assessment per student/staff member following the guidance below.
4. Submit ‘CaseReferenceNumber’ of appeals at assessment level. For example, where multiple assessments are appealed for the same student and qualification, and are submitted on the same day, each appealed assessment should have a different ‘CaseReferenceNumber’.
   Where a centre appeals on behalf of a group of students, or a cohort, each student should continue to be reported as a separate row, however in this case they should share the same ‘CaseReferenceNumber’ if the appeal is for the same assessment.
5. Data should include ‘in-progress’ appeals, completed appeals and appeals that have been immediately rejected and did not progress to an appeal (‘Application not proceeded’ appeals – defined in Appendix B). Provide as much information as possible for appeals which do not progress to preliminary appeal. These cases should have a value of ‘Application not proceeded’ for the fields ‘CurrentStageOfAppeal’ and ‘StageAppealResolved’.
6. A request for a review of marking or moderation is a separate process and should not be included in this template. Appeals against the outcome of a review of marking or moderation should be included.
7. Appeals involving centre staff should have a unique identifier preceded by ‘Staff_’. For example, Staff_123456A. This should be entered into the UCI field.
8. The ‘TypeOfDecisionAppealed’ field separates out the types of decisions that are subject to appeals from the grounds for appeal. For example, where a student has reason to believe the centre has not followed its internal appeals procedure the ‘GroundOfAppeal’ would be “Procedural inconsistency – centre” and the ‘TypeOfDecisionAppealed’ field would specify if this appeal was in relation to a component or qualification result, malpractice or maladministration case, a reasonable adjustment or a special consideration.
9. Appeals with multiple grounds for appeal should have a row for each ground for appeal, given in the ‘GroundOfAppeal’ field. If appeals for each ground are all for the same assessment and made on the same date, each row should have the same ‘CaseReferenceNumber’.
10. Each stage of an appeal should be included in the submission in a separate row. Where an appeal progresses to independent review, submit a row for the corresponding preliminary appeal and a row for the independent review. Where appeals go straight to independent review with no preliminary appeal stage, submit one row with ‘Independent review – no preliminary appeal’ in the ‘CurrentStageOfAppeal’ field.
11. For appeals which progress through multiple stages, submit the same ‘CaseReferenceNumber’ at each stage.
12. Where an appeal progresses to independent review, the ‘StageAppealResolved’ field should match the ‘CurrentStageOfAppeal’ field. The row for the preliminary appeal should contain ‘Preliminary appeal’ in ‘StageAppealResolved’, and the row for the independent review row should contain ‘Independent review’ in ‘StageAppealResolved’.
13. ‘PreAppealQualificationGrade’ and ‘PostAppealQualificationGrade’ should be reported regardless of whether the appeal was upheld or not.
14. The ‘PreAppealQualificationGrade’ field should reflect the overall qualification grade at the beginning of the appeal. For example, where a student is originally awarded a Merit grade, then changed to a Distinction after a review of marking and this decision is appealed, the awarding organisation should enter Distinction as the ‘PreAppealQualificationGrade’.
15. The ‘PostAppealQualificationGrade’ field should reflect the overall outcome at the qualification level. Therefore, if a candidate has an appeal on more than one assessment for the same qualification, the values in ‘PostAppealQualificationGrade’ should be the same, even if one of the assessments did not result in a change.
16. Pre- and post-appeal qualification outcomes (‘PreAppealQualificationGrade’, ‘PostAppealQualificationGrade’) should be reported for the qualification overall and should be the same across appealed assessments and appeal stages. For example, if at the preliminary appeal stage the qualification grade was a Merit and remained a Merit but when for one of the qualification assessments the appeal progressed to independent review the qualification grade was changed from Merit to Distinction, submit Merit as the ‘PreAppealQualificationGrade’ and Distinction as the ‘PostAppealQualificationGrade’ for all rows relating to all appealed assessments and all stages of this appeal.
17. Pre- and post-appeal assessment outcomes (‘PreAppealAssessmentGrade’, ‘PostAppealAssessmentGrade’, ‘PreAppealAssessmentRawMark’ and ‘PostAppealAssessmentRawMark’) should be reported individually for each appeal stage and each assessment. For example, at the preliminary appeal stage the pre-appeal assessment raw mark of 44 was changed to a post-appeal assessment raw mark of 45 – when this appeal progresses to independent review, the pre-appeal assessment raw mark is now 45.
18. Submit UniqueCandidateIdentifier and UniqueLearnerNumber where available. Where UniqueCandidateIdentifier and UniqueLearnerNumber are not available, submit a CandidateIdentifierOther, which is any other unique student number allocated by the awarding organisation.
19. Submit CentreNCN and CentreURN where available. Where CentreNCN and CentreURN are not available, submit a CentreIdentifierOther, which is any other unique centre number allocated by the awarding organisation.
20. ‘AssessmentCode’ is a unique identifier for the assessment, allocated by the awarding organisation. Each individual assessment must have a unique code – codes should not be shared across different assessments and, aside from when specifications change, should be consistent across submissions, data collections and over time.
21. Assessment refers to the actual assessment tasks taken by students, such as tests or portfolios. Assessments are the lowest level of granularity within a qualification where marking and/or grading occurs.
22. Assessments are not equal to teaching units, but a unit might only contain one assessment. In the ‘AssessmentCode’ field, when one teaching unit is assessed by one assessment, please provide the URN (Unit Reference Number). Otherwise please provide a unique identifier for each individual assessment as defined above.

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	Description of Regular Expression	Validation Regular Expression
AcademicYear	The academic year which this data submission relates to (defined as 1 September to 31 August) For example, 2021-2022	1	The academic year in the following format: start year (4 digits), a dash, end year (4 digits). Format accepted yyyy-yyyy.	^(20)\d\d[-](20)\d\d$
ReportingDate	Date the file was due to be submitted regardless of when it was actually uploaded (this date will be made available by Ofqual).	2	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day-of-month (2 digits) Format accepted yyyy-mm-dd.	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
AwardingOrganisation	Awarding organisation acronym as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated organisations	3	1 to 150 characters accepted	^.{1,150}$
CaseReferenceNumber	Unique case identifier assigned by the awarding organisation	4	1 to 25 characters accepted	^.{1,25}$
QualificationNumber	The unique identifier for the qualification as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated qualifications, for example, 123/1234/1	5	Valid qualification number. 10 characters accepted -2 accepted for not applicable, for example appeals that are not specific to a single qualification, where a candidate has not cashed-in or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(?:-2|.{10})$
QualificationTitle	Title of qualification as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated qualifications	6	1 to 150 characters accepted. -2 accepted where not applicable, for example appeals that are not specific to a single qualification, where a candidate has not cashed-in or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,150}$
SpecificationCode	Specification code, also known as Subject Code and Pathway Code	7	1 to 7 characters accepted. -2 accepted where not applicable, for example appeals that are not specific to a single assessment, or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^{1,7}$
SpecificationTitle	Specification title, also known as subject title. Must be provided if specification code is provided	8	1 to 150 characters accepted. -2 accepted where not applicable, for example appeals that are not specific to a single assessment, or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,150}$
AssessmentCode	Unique identifier for the assessment, generated by the AO.	9	1 to 50 characters accepted. -2 accepted where not applicable, for example appeals that are not specific to a single assessment, or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,50}$
UCI	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) Unique centre staff identifier where applicable (see general completion guidelines)	10	1 to 13 characters accepted -2 accepted for student appeals if UCI is not available	^.{1,13}$
ULN	Unique Learner Number (ULN) provided by the Learning Records Service	11	Valid ULN. 10 digits accepted -2 accepted where ULN is unknown, appeal does not relate to a student or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(?:-2|\d{10}$
CandidateIdentifierOther	Any other unique candidate number allocated by individual awarding organisation. Must be provided where UCI and ULN are not available.	12	1 to 20 characters accepted. -2 accepted where at least one of UCI or ULN have been provided, appeal does not relate to a student or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,20}$
FirstName	Student’s first name(s) If middle name cannot be separated from first name please provide both names in the FirstName field and leave the MiddleNames field blank.	13	1 to 150 characters accepted. -2 accepted where appeal does not relate to a student or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^. {1,150}$
MiddleNames	Student’s middle name(s), if able to separate out from first names.	14	0 to 150 characters accepted. Can be left blank if not known or unavailable, or if middle names cannot be separated from first names	^.{0,150}$
Surname	Student’s surname or family name	15	1 to 150 characters accepted. -2 accepted where appeal does not relate to a student or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,150}$
DateOfBirth	Student’s date of birth	16	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day-of-month (2 digits). Format accepted yyyy-mm-dd. 2999-12-31 accepted where appeal does not relate to a student or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
CentreNCN	Centre’s National Centre Number as allocated by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) Higher NCN code not accepted	17	Valid NCN code. 5-digit integer accepted Higher NCN code not accepted -2 accepted where NCN is unknown, centre does not have an NCN, student is not registered to a centre, or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(?:-2|\d{5})$
CentreURN	Centre’s Unique Reference Number as assigned by the Department for Education	18	Valid Centre URN.  6-digit integer accepted -2 accepted where the centre number is unknown, centre does not have a URN, candidate is not registered to a centre, or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(?:-2|\d{6})$
CentreIdentifierOther	Any other unique number allocated to the centre by individual awarding organisation at the time of data submission. Must be provided if neither CentreNCN nor CentreURN are available	19	1 to 20 characters accepted. -2 accepted where at least one of NCN or URN have been provided or for students who are not registered to a centre, or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,20}$
CentreName	Name of the centre	20	1 to 100 characters accepted. -2 accepted for students who are not registered to a centre, or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,100}$
CentrePostcode	Postcode of the centre. Must be provided if neither CentreNCN nor CentreURN are available	21	1 to 10 characters accepted. -2 accepted for students who are not registered to a centre., or where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^.{1,10}$
TypeOfDecisionAppealed	The type of decision that is appealed	22	Accepted values: • Component or qualification result • Malpractice or maladministration • Reasonable adjustment • Special consideration	^(Component or qualification result|Malpractice or maladministration|Reasonable adjustment|Special consideration)$
GroundOfAppeal	Grounds for appeal	23	See Appendix A for accepted values	^(Administrative error - centre|Administrative error - AO|Procedural inconsistency - centre|Procedural inconsistency - AO|Unreasonable exercise of academic judgement - centre|Unreasonable exercise of academic judgement - AO|-2)$
CurrentStageOfAppeal	Current stage of appeal at time of data submission	24	Accepted values: • Application not proceeded • Preliminary appeal • Independent review • Independent review – no preliminary appeal Definitions of stages provided in Appendix B	^(Application not proceeded|Preliminary appeal|Independent review|Independent review – no preliminary appeal)$
StageAppealResolved	Stage the appeal was resolved	25	Accepted values: • Application not proceeded • Preliminary appeal • Independent review • Independent review – no preliminary appeal • Still in process Definitions of stages provided in Appendix B	^(Application not proceeded|Preliminary appeal|Independent review|Independent review – no preliminary appeal|Still in process)$
ReasonNotProceeded	For ‘Application not proceeded’ appeals only, to indicate the reason why the appeal did not progress	26	Accepted values: • Withdrawn by centre • Invalid grounds • No ROMM application • Cancelled by AO • Invalid application • No Stage 1 appeal -2 expected where CurrentStageOfAppeal is not ‘Application not proceeded’	^(Withdrawn by centre|Invalid grounds|No ROMM application|Cancelled by AO|Invalid application|No Stage 1 appeal|-2)$
AppealUpheld	To indicate if the appeal was upheld at the CurrentStageOfAppeal	27	Accepted values: • Y for yes • N for no • TBC for to be confirmed -2 accepted where CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(Y|N|TBC|-2)$
PreAppealAssessmentGrade	Pre-appeal assessment grade at the beginning of the CurrentStageOfAppeal	28	Accepted values provided in Appendix C. -2 accepted where not applicable, grade is not captured when appeal is not upheld, or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	See Appendix C
PostAppealAssessmentGrade	Post-appeal assessment grade at the end of the CurrentStageOfAppeal	29	Accepted values provided in Appendix C. -2 accepted where not applicable, grade is not captured when appeal is not upheld, StageAppealResolved is ‘Still in process’ or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	See Appendix C
PreAppealAssessmentRawMark	Pre-appeal assessment raw mark at the beginning of the CurrentStageOfAppeal	30	Up to 3-digit integer -2 accepted where not applicable, mark is not captured when appeal is not upheld, or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(?:-2|\d{1,3})$
PostAppealAssessmentRawMark	Post-appeal assessment raw mark at the end of the CurrentStageOfAppeal	31	Up to 3-digit integer -2 accepted where not applicable, mark is not captured when appeal is not upheld, StageAppealResolved is ‘Still in process’ or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(?:-2|\d{1,3})$
PreAppealQualificationGrade	Pre-appeal qualification grade originally appealed	32	Accepted values provided in Appendix C. -2 accepted where not applicable, grade is not yet known (for example for mid-flight students), grade is not captured when appeal is not upheld, or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	See Appendix C
PostAppealQualificationGrade	Post-Appeal Qualification Grade once all stages of appeal are complete	33	Accepted values provided in Appendix C. -2 accepted where not applicable, grade is not yet known (for example for mid-flight students), grade is not captured when appeal is not upheld, StageAppealResolved is ‘Still in process‘ or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	See Appendix C
DateReceived	Date when the appeal application was received	34	Date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day-of-month (2 digits). Format accepted yyyy-mm-dd.	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
DateCompleted	Date when the appeal was completed. For appeals progressed to preliminary appeal or independent review, defined as the date when an appeal is completed and decision letter is sent. For ‘Application not proceeded’ appeals, the date when a response was sent to the parent, student or centre.	35	Date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day-of-month (2 digits). Format accepted yyyy-mm-dd. 2999-12-31 accepted where appeal not yet completed or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ‘Application not proceeded’	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$

Validation rules

A data submission is only considered complete once it has successfully passed the validation rules.

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. A file may be successful but with warnings. Warnings will not cause failure in the validation process but will highlight entries which may need to be checked. You will receive an email with details of the warning in an attached “Data Validation Warnings Report”. If you receive this, please review the report and contact Ofqual Data Services should the data require any amendment.

The validation rules for this template check that each field is correctly formatted. The correct formatting of the fields are detailed in the ‘file format’ section. Failure to format the fields in line with the validation regular expression will result in unsuccessful validation. Additional validation rules are also in place for this template and may include cross-referencing with other templates. These validation rules along with whether they result in failure or a warning are detailed in the following table.

Validation rule	Result if not met
‘AcademicYear’ value is in scope of the return	Fail and rejected
‘ReportingDate’ values match date the file was due to be submitted to Ofqual regardless of when it was actually uploaded (this date will be made available by Ofqual)	Fail and rejected
‘AwardingOrganisation’ is valid acronym	Fail and rejected
‘QualificationNumber’ is a valid non-GQ qualification number in Ofqual register or is -2	Fail and rejected
‘CentreNCN’ code is in the NCN register, or the value is -2	Fail and rejected
‘CentrePostCode’ is a valid postcode in the Ordnance Survey reference table or is -2	Pass with warning

Appendix A: Grounds of appeal

Please see the following guidance for entering values for the field ‘GroundOfAppeal’

Ground of appeal	Description
Administrative error - centre	The centre made an administrative error. For example, clerical or human errors, or incorrect forms were completed.
Administrative error - AO	The awarding organisation made an administrative error. For example, clerical or human errors.
Procedural inconsistency - centre	The centre did not apply a procedure consistently, correctly, or fairly. For example, a centre did not submit a student’s work by a specific deadline, or fairness of an internal malpractice investigation is disputed.
Procedural inconsistency - AO	The awarding organisation did not apply a procedure consistently, correctly, or fairly. For example, escalations by awarding organisation staff were not followed up and this affected the outcome of the student’s result, or a sanction imposed is disproportionate to the severity of malpractice.
Unreasonable exercise of academic judgement - centre	The centre made an unreasonable exercise of academic judgement, for example in the choice of evidence from which they determined a grade and/or in the determination of a grade from that evidence for internal assessments.
Unreasonable exercise of academic judgement - AO	The awarding organisation made an unreasonable exercise of academic judgement, for example while awarding marks to any assessment completed by a student or internal assessments marked by the centre and verified/moderated by the awarding organisation.
-2	To be used in cases where the ground for appeal is unknown or CurrentStageOfAppeal is ’Application not proceeded’.

Appendix B: Stages of appeal

Please see the following guidance for entering values for the fields ‘CurrentStageOfAppeal’ and ‘StageAppealResolved’.

Stage of appeal	Description
Application not proceeded	Awarding organisation received an appeal application and reviewed the grounds for appeal, but ultimately did not proceed with the application, for example because it was withdrawn by centre or deemed to have invalid grounds. No evidence is reviewed at this stage.
Preliminary appeal	Appeal and accompanying evidence were received and reviewed by awarding organisation staff who have not previously been involved with the case.
Independent review	Following a preliminary appeal outcome that an appellant disagrees with, the appeal and accompanying evidence is reviewed by at least one decision maker who is independent from the awarding organisation to reach a final decision.
Independent review – no preliminary appeal	To be used by awarding organisations where appeal process progresses straight to an independent review after being accepted.
Still in process	Applicable for StageAppealResolved field only. An appeal that is with the awarding organisation but not yet resolved

Appendix C: Accepted Grade Values

The following are grades accepted for this collection. Let us know via the Portal as soon as possible if any grades appear to be missing from this list. You will not be able to submit any grades which are not on this list without informing us first.

FAIL

-2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

*, A*, A, B, C, D*, D, E, F, G, J, K, M, N, P, Q, R, U, X

AC1, C1, E1, E2, E3

D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, M1, M2, M3, P1, P2, P3

**, *1, *2, *D, D*D*, D*D, DD, DM, HM, LM, HP, LP, MD, MM, MP, PM, PP

***, D*D*D* , **D, D*D*D, D**, DD*D*, *DD, D*DD, DD*, DDD*, DD*D, DDD, DDM, DMM, MDD, MMD, MMM, MMP, MPP, PMM, PPM, PPP

24B, 25B, 26B, 27B, 28B, 29B, 30B, 31B, 32B, 33B, 34B, 35B, 36B, 37B, 38B, 39B, 40B, 41B, 42B, 43B, 44B, 45B

24D, 25D, 26D, 27D, 28D, 29D, 30D, 31D, 32D, 33D, 34D, 35D, 36D, 37D, 38D, 39D, 40D, 41D, 42D, 43D, 44D, 45D

24F, 25F, 26F, 27F, 28F, 29F, 30F, 31F, 32F, 33F, 34F, 35F, 36F, 37F, 38F, 39F, 40F, 41F, 42F, 43F, 44F, 45F

Convert any of the following grades to the allowed values.

Grade	Allowed Value
Distinction	D
Distinction*	D*
L1D* L1 Distinction*	*1
L2D* Distinction* L2 L2 Distinction*	*2
Distinction 1 Distinction L1 L1 Distinction  L1D	D1
Distinction 2 Distinction L2 L2 Distinction L2D	D2
Distinction 3	D3
High Merit	HM
Merit	M
Low Merit	LM
Merit 1 Merit L1 L1 Merit L1M	M1
Merit 2 Merit L2 L2 Merit L2M	M2
Merit 3	M3
L1 Adv. Credit	AC1
L1 Credit	C1
High Pass	HP
Pass	P
Low Pass	LP
Pass 1 Pass L1 L1 Pass L1P	P1
Pass 2 Pass L2 L2 Pass L2P	P2
Pass 3	P3
Entry 1	E1
Entry 2	E2
Entry 3	E3
Unclassified	U
Queried/pending	Q
Disqualified/Absent without good reason	X

Recent changes to this guidance

Date of change	Description of change
01/05/2026	Updated the document template and clarified aspects of the text. Updated validation for ‘Reporting date’, ‘DateOfBirth’, ‘Date received’ and ‘Date completed’ to only accept yyyy-mm-dd as valid date format. Changed validation for ‘CentreNCN’ field to accept 5 digits only (or -2) in line with the expectation for a valid NCN. Changed validation for ‘CentreURN’ field to accept 6 digits only (or -2) in line with the expectation for a valid URN. Changed validation for ‘ULN’ to accept 10 digits only (or -2) in line with the expectation for a valid ULN. Changed validation for ‘QualificationNumber’ to accept 10 characters only (or -2) in line with the expectation for a valid qualification number. Changed validation for ‘TypeOfDecisionAppealed’ to no longer accept the values “result based on assessment”, “result based on tag” and “eligibility for tag”. Updated validation for ‘AppealUpheld’ to only accept values as described in this template. “Yes” and “No” will no longer be accepted. Updated validation for ‘PreAppealAssessmentRawMark’ and ‘PostAppealAssessmentRawMark’ to no longer accept blank fields. New validation rule checks if ‘CentrePostCode’ is a valid postcode in the Ordnance Survey reference table or is -2 otherwise passes with warning.
30/04/2024	Granularity was changed from aggregate to candidate level

Contacts

For all queries or feedback 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