Guidance

Core Maths Outcomes Guidance: guide to the data submission process

Updated 1 May 2026

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, publish reports, and to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

What data will be collected?

Data should relate to student outcomes at qualification level for the time period and qualifications in scope of the collection.

Qualifications in scope

The following type of qualification is in scope of this collection:

• Core Maths

The eligible qualification numbers for this qualification are as follows:

• 601/4783/0
• 601/4782/9
• 601/4857/3
• 601/4945/0

Countries in scope

Data should be included for all students in centres in:

• England

Time period in scope

Data for the summer exam series.

When data will be collected

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

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. There is no need to submit registrations or entries for students without grades awarded. For students with grades awarded, please still provide a registration/entry date in the relevant field.

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
ReportingDate	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)	1	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])$
ExamSeries	Exam series data relates to, for example June 2024	2	Full month name of exam series and year.	^(June)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$
AwardingOrganisation	Awarding organisation acronym as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated organisations	3	Valid awarding organisation acronym. 1 to 150 characters accepted	^.{1,150}$
QualificationNumber	The unique identifier for the qualification as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated qualifications, for example, 123/1234/1	4	Valid Qualification Number. 10 characters accepted	^.{10}$
UniqueLearnerNumber	Unique Learner Number (ULN) provided by the Learning Records Service -2 accepted if not available	5	10 digits accepted -2 accepted if not available	^(?:-2|\d{10})$
UniqueCandidateIdentifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) -2 accepted if not available	6	Valid UCI. Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted -2 accepted if not available	^(?:-2|.{13})$
CandidateIdentifierOther	Any other unique candidate number allocated by individual awarding organisation. Must be provided where UCI and ULN are not available. If more than one identifier is available please provide as many as possible. -2 accepted where at least one of UCI or ULN have been provided	7	1 to 20 characters accepted -2 accepted where at least one of UCI or ULN have been provided	^.{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.	8	1 to 150 characters accepted	^.{1,150}$
MiddleNames	Student’s middle name(s), if able to separate out from first names. Can be left blank if not known or unavailable, or if middle names cannot be separated from first names	9	0 to 150 characters accepted Can be left blank if not known, unavailable, or if middle names cannot be separated from first names.	^.{0,150}$
Surname	Student’s surname or family name	10	1 to 150 characters accepted	^.{1,150}$
DOB	Student’s date of birth	11	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 if DOB unknown	^(19|20|29)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
Sex	Student’s sex -2 accepted for other or not stated	12	Accepted values: • M • F -2 accepted for other or not stated	^(M|F|-2)$
CentreURN	Centre’s Unique Reference Number as assigned by the Department for Education -2 accepted where the centre does not have an URN	13	Valid Centre URN. 6- digit integer accepted -2 accepted where centre does not have a URN	^(?:-2|^\d{6}$)
CentreNCN	Centre’s National Centre Number as allocated by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) -2 accepted where centre does not have a NCN Higher NCN code not accepted	14	Valid NCN code. 5-digit integer accepted -2 accepted where centre does not have a NCN Higher NCN code not accepted	^(?:-2|^\d{5})$
CentreIdentifierOther	Any other unique number allocated to the centre or assessment venue by individual awarding organisation at the time of data submission. Must be provided where CentreURN and CentreNCN are not available. If more than one identifier is available please provide as many as possible. -2 accepted where at least one of CentreNCN or CentreURN have been provided or for students who are not registered to a centre.	15	1 to 15 characters accepted -2 accepted where at least one of CentreNCN or CentreURN have been provided or for students who are not registered to a centre	^{1,15}$
RegistrationDate	Date when the student originally registered/entered for the qualification. This date must be on or before the first entry date and the award date.	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	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
AwardDate	The date that the result was issued, or is due to be issued to the centre (or student if result issued directly to student) Where used, this will be the date of the ‘results day’ for this qualification Future dates are accepted	17	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])$
QualificationGrade	Final grade awarded for the qualification. Submit fail grades (‘U’) where possible.	18	Accepted values: • A • B • C • D • E • U • X • Q	^(A|B|C|D|E|U|X|Q)$

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
ReportingDate matches 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
‘ExamSeries’ value is in scope of the return	Fail and rejected
‘AwardingOrganisation’ is valid acronym	Fail and rejected
‘QualificationNumber’ is a valid qualification number in Ofqual register and does not belong to AEAs, GCSEs, AS or A levels	Fail and rejected
‘UniqueCandidateIdentifier’ is a valid UCI format	Fail and rejected
A value (other than -2) is submitted for ‘CandidateIdentifierOther’ field if ‘UniqueCandidateIdentifier’ and ‘UniqueLearnerNumber’ fields are -2	Fail and rejected
‘CentreNCN’ code is in the NCN register or the value is -2	Pass with warning
A value (other than -2) is submitted for ‘CentreIdentifierOther’ field if ‘CentreNCN’ and ‘CentreURN’ fields are both -2	Fail and rejected

Recent changes to this guidance

Date of change	Description of change
01/05/2026	Updated the document template and clarified aspects of the text. AcademicYear column was changed to ExamSeries to better reflect the data we are asking to collect. Removal of the following columns as no longer needed for this data collection: • MaxMarkAndBoundaryID • QualificationCompletionStatus • QualificationRawMark • QualificationScaledScore

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