Guidance

Malpractice: guide to the data submission process

Updated 21 September 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. In particular, this data is used in the publication of the Official Statistics report: Malpractice in GCSE, AS and A level as well as the following interactive visualisation:

• Summary statistics for GCSE, AS and A level

Northern Ireland data will also be shared with CCEA regulation to fulfil their own purposes as a regulator.

What data will be collected?

Data should relate to all malpractice cases investigated, including offence type and any sanctions applied for the time period and qualifications in scope of the collection.

Qualifications in scope

The following qualification types are in scope of this collection:

• GCSE (including GCSE short course)
• AS
• A level
• Project level 3

Data should include both exam and non-exam assessments, including endorsements.

Countries in scope

Data should be included for all students in centres in:

• England
• Northern Ireland (on behalf of CCEA regulation)

Time period in scope

Data is collected once per academic year, including both the latest summer and November exam series.

Data for each exam series, for example, June 2024, should only refer to offences committed in that series. Sanctions for offences committed outside of these time periods should not be included. For example, a sanction applied in June 2024 for an offence committed in June 2023 should not be included in the return for June 2024. If a case for an offence committed in the requested series is still on going at the time of data collection, please still include this in the return with ‘case ongoing outcome TBD’ in the type of penalty issued field.

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. Submit 1 row of data per malpractice offence per penalty issued per student, staff or centre. For student and centre staff malpractice cases submit one row per student or staff member respectively. For centre malpractice cases, submit one row per centre. For malpractice cases involving more than one student, submit one row of data per student involved. For instance, if a malpractice incident involved 4 students submit 4 rows of data. Where a single malpractice case includes several offences and/or penalties issued, submit one row of data per offence and/or penalty issued.
4. All malpractice cases that are investigated should be reported - if there is insufficient evidence to issue a penalty, ‘No evidence to substantiate allegation’ should be entered into the type of penalty issued field.
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, and
   1. if the awarding organisation does not record an offence at the beginning of the process, then ‘case ongoing’ should be recorded in the type of offence field
   2. if the awarding organisation does record an offence at the beginning of the process, it should be entered into the type of offence field as normal (as per Appendix B)
6. The value ‘insufficient information’ should be entered into the type of offence field for malpractice cases where the offence is unknown.
7. In the event of systemic cases, where the specific subject information is unknown, for instance for Access Arrangements, 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, QAN, specification code, unit code etc.
8. For malpractice cases that relate to access arrangements, the value entered for the type of offence field should be preceded by ‘AA_’, for example, ‘AA_deception’, ‘AA_improper assistance’.
9. Acts of malpractice which are explicitly linked (for example, two students suspected of colluding together or committing disruptive acts together, or a centre staff member and student 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.
10. The malpractice case identifier must be unique across all years of data. If identifiers are re-used each year, please prefix the identifier with the year, for example, 202324/12345.
11. For student malpractice in project qualifications, valid UCI or ULN and valid NCN should be provided where available. Where not available “-2” is accepted. If neither UCI nor ULN are available, provide a unique student identifier in ‘CandidateIdentifierOther’. Where NCN is not available, provide the centre postcode in ‘CentrePostcode’. ‘CandidateIdentifierOther’ should be consistent within a single malpractice case.
12. For student malpractice in GCSE, AS, and A level, valid UCI and NCN must be provided and “-2” is not accepted in these fields. Providing a valid ULN is not mandatory.
13. For centre staff malpractice, submit ‘StaffIdentifier’ where available. This should uniquely identify each individual member of staff or examiner involved in the malpractice allegation, but should not include staff names or anything else that directly identifies them (for example, email addresses). ‘-2’ is only accepted in centre staff malpractice cases if the ‘StaffIdentifier’ is not known or unable to be generated (for example, where the investigation is ongoing and the number of staff members involved in the allegation is unknown). ‘StaffIdentifier’ should be consistent within a single malpractice case.

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
Reporting date	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 (four digits), a dash, month (two digits), a dash, day-of-month (two digits). Format accepted: yyyy-mm-dd	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
Exam Series	Exam series data relates to, for example June 2024	2	Full month name of exam series and year	^(January|March|November|June)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$
Awarding organisation	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}$
Malpractice case identifier	Unique case identifier assigned by the awarding organisation. See general completion guidelines for more detail	4	1 to 25 characters accepted	^.{1,25}$
Centre No.	Centre’s National Centre Number as allocated by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). Higher NCN code not accepted Must be provided for GCSE, AS and A level -2 accepted for Project qualifications if NCN code is not available	5	Valid NCN code. 5-digit integer accepted Higher NCN code not accepted Must be provided for GCSE, AS and A level -2 accepted for Project qualifications if NCN code is not available	^(?:-2|\d{5})$
CentrePostcode	Postcode of the centre Must be provided for Project qualifications if NCN is not available. -2 accepted where valid NCN has been provided in ‘Centre No.’	6	Valid postcode. 1 to 10 characters accepted -2 accepted where valid NCN has been provided in ‘Centre No.’	^.{1,10}$
Type of malpractice	To indicate type of malpractice See Appendix A for guidance	7	Accepted values: • Candidate • Centre • Centre staff See Appendix A for guidance	^(Candidate|Centre|Centre staff)$
Unique Candidate Identifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) Must be provided for GCSE, AS and A level student malpractice -2 required for centre and centre staff malpractice -2 accepted for Project qualifications if UCI is not available	8	Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted Must be provided for GCSE, AS and A level student malpractice-2 required for centre and centre staff malpractice -2 accepted for Project qualifications if UCI is not available	^(?:-2|.{13})$
UniqueLearnerNumber	Unique Learner Number (ULN) provided by the Learning Records Service -2 required for centre and centre staff malpractice -2 accepted if valid UCI is provided	9	Valid ULN. 10 digits accepted. -2 required for centre and centre staff malpractice -2 accepted if valid UCI is provided	^(?:-2|\d{10})
CandidateIdentifierOther	Any other unique student number allocated by individual awarding organisation. Must be provided for Project qualifications if UCI and ULN are not available. -2 required for centre and centre staff malpractice -2 accepted where at least one of UCI or ULN have been provided.	10	1 to 20 characters accepted -2 accepted where at least one of UCI or ULN have been provided. -2 required for centre and centre staff malpractice -2 accepted where at least one of UCI or ULN have been provided.	^.{1,20}$
Staff identifier	Identifier to uniquely identify each individual member of staff involved in the malpractice allegation (assigned by the awarding organisations). Please do not provide staff names.	11	1 to 25 characters accepted -2 accepted for student or centre malpractice, or where the investigation is ongoing and the number of staff members involved in the allegation is unknown	^.{1,25}$
QAN	This should be the unique identifier for the qualification as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated qualifications, for example, 123/1234/1 -2 accepted for systemic cases or for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	12	Valid qualification number. 10 characters accepted. -2 accepted for systemic cases or for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	^(?:-2|.{10})$
Specification title	Specification title, also known as subject title. Must be provided if specification code is provided. ‘Non-assessment specific’ accepted for systemic cases. -2 accepted for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	13	1 to 150 characters accepted ‘Non-assessment specific’ accepted for systemic cases -2 accepted for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	^.{1,150}$
Specification code	Specification code, also known as Subject Award Code and Cash-in Code -2 accepted for systemic cases or for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	14	1 to 7 characters accepted -2 accepted for systemic cases or for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	^.{1,7}$
Unit code	Unit or component identifier 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, for example in systemic cases.	15	1 to 10 characters accepted -2 accepted where not available or not applicable, for example in systemic cases	^.{1,10}$
Qualification level	Type of qualification -2 accepted for systemic cases ‘A level’ also accepted for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	16	Accepted values: • GCSE • AS • A level • Project L3 -2 accepted for systemic cases ‘A level’ also accepted for Northern Ireland data where the student is not certificating and the unit can be used against either AS or A level specifications	^(GCSE|AS|A level|Project L3|-2)$
Assessment type	To indicate type of assessment, internal or external. Internal assessment means set and/or marked by centres. External assessment means that the assessment is externally set and marked by the awarding organisation or another independent body. -2 accepted for systemic cases.	17	Accepted values: • Internal • External -2 accepted for systemic cases	^(Internal|External|-2)$
Type of offence	Description of offence. The list of offences is given in Appendix B. Please choose the most appropriate one.	18	See Appendix B for accepted values	See Appendix B for accepted values
Type of penalty issued	Description of penalty. The list of penalties is given in Appendix C. Please choose the most appropriate one.	19	See Appendix C for accepted values	See Appendix C for accepted values

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
‘Exam Series’ value is in scope of the return	Fail and rejected
‘Reporting date’ 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
‘Awarding organisation’ is valid acronym	Fail and rejected
‘Centre No.’  is a valid reference number in the NCN register. If ‘Qualification level’ is Project L3, value can also be -2	Fail and rejected
A value other than -2 is submitted for ‘CentrePostcode’ field if ‘Centre No.’ is -2	Fail and rejected
‘Unique Candidate Identifier’ is a valid UCI format or the value is -2	Fail and rejected
A value other than -2 is submitted for ‘CandidateIdentifierOther’ field if ‘Type Of Malpractice’ is candidate and values for ‘UniqueCandidateIdentifier’ and ‘UniqueLearnerNumber’ are both -2	Fail and rejected
‘Staff identifier’ is -2 if ‘Type Of Malpractice’ is candidate	Fail and rejected
‘QAN’ is a valid qualification number in Ofqual register or is -2	Fail and rejected
‘Specification Code’ must be consistent with those submitted in the Specification code data collection	Fail and rejected
‘Qualification Level’ and ‘QAN’ match Ofqual register	Fail and rejected

Appendix A: Malpractice types

Please see the following guidance for entering values for ‘Type of malpractice’.

Malpractice type	Description
Candidate	Candidate malpractice includes wrongdoing by a student in connection with any assessment or examination that impacts the integrity of the qualification. This includes the preparation and authentication of centre-based assessment (internal assessment), the compilation of portfolios of evidence, presentation of practical work, the writing of an examination paper.
Centre staff	Centre staff include teachers, trainers, other staff or volunteers involved in delivering a course of study. It also includes assessment personnel such as examination officers, invigilators, and those facilitating access arrangements.
Centre	Malpractice committed by a whole department or whole school or college. 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.

Appendix 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 malpractice

• AA_deception
• AA_improper assistance
• Bias or discrimination
• Breach of security
• Case ongoing
• Deception
• Failure to comply with regulations for Access Arrangements/Reasonable Adjustments/Special Consideration
• Failure to co-operate with an investigation
• Improper assistance to candidates
• Insufficient information
• Maladministration
• Negligence
• Offence not proven

Candidate malpractice

• A breach of instructions or advice of an invigilator supervisor or the awarding body in relation to the examination rules and regulations
• AA_deception
• AA_improper assistance
• Allowing others to assist in the production of controlled assessments coursework or assisting others in the production of controlled assessments or coursework
• Allowing work to be copied e.g. posting written coursework on social networking sites prior to an examination/assessment
• Behaving in a way as to undermine the integrity of the examination
• Being in possession of confidential material in advance of the examination
• Bringing into the exam room notes in the wrong format or prohibited annotations
• Case ongoing
• Collusion working collaboratively with other candidates beyond what is permitted
• Copying from another candidate including the misuse of ICT
• 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 - electronic written or non-verbal communication
• Exchanging obtaining receiving passing on information or the attempt to which could be examination related by means of - talking
• Failing to abide by the conditions of supervision designated to maintain the security of the examinations
• Impersonation pretending to be someone else arranging for another person to take ones place in an examination or an assessment
• Insufficient information
• Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - Calculators dictionaries when prohibited
• Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room - Mobile phone or other electronic communicating devices
• 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 - Personal stereo including MP3 iPod or any other similar electronic devices
• Introduction of unauthorised material into the examination room – watches (not smartwatches)
• Making a false declaration of authenticity
• Misuse of or attempted misuse of examination material and resources
• Offence not proven
• Plagiarism unacknowledged copying from published sources including the internet incomplete referencing and excluding the misuse of artificial intelligence
• Plagiarism misuse of artificial intelligence
• The alteration of any results document including certificates
• The deliberate destruction of work
• The inclusion of inappropriate offensive or obscene material in scripts coursework or portfolios
• The unauthorised use of a memory stick or similar device where a candidate uses a word processor
• Theft where the candidates work is removed or stolen

Appendix C: Type of penalty issued

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

Centre staff malpractice

• Case ongoing outcome TBD
• No evidence to substantiate allegation
• No penalty issued
• Referral to TRA (Teaching Regulation Agency)
• Special conditions
• Suspension
• Training
• Written warning

Centre malpractice

• Additional monitoring or inspection
• Approval of specific assessment tasks
• Case ongoing outcome TBD
• Independent invigilators
• No evidence to substantiate allegation
• No penalty issued
• Restrictions on examination and assessment materials
• Review and report
• Suspension of candidate registrations or entries
• Withdrawal of approval for a specific qualification
• Withdrawal of centre recognition
• Written warning

Candidate malpractice

• Candidate debarral
• Case ongoing outcome TBD
• Disqualification from a unit
• Disqualification from all qualifications in series
• Disqualification from all units
• Disqualification from whole qualification
• Loss of all marks for a unit
• Loss of marks for a component
• Loss of marks for a section
• No evidence to substantiate allegation
• No penalty issued
• Warning

Recent changes to this guidance

Date of change	Description of change
21/09/2026	Updated the document template and clarified aspects of the text. AEA no longer in scope. Updated accepted values for ‘Qualification level’ to harmonise with other GQ templates. Time period in scope changed so data is collected once per academic year, including both the latest summer and November exam series. Added fields ‘UniqueLearnerNumber’, ‘CandidateIdentifierOther” and ‘CentrePostcode’” and validation rules. Changed validation for ‘Centre No’ field to accept 5 digits only (or -2) and added validation rule for valid NCN. Changed validation for ‘UniqueCandidateIdentifier’ to accept 13 characters only (or -2) in line with the expectation for a valid UCI.
29/10/2025	Updated guidance so exam boards are no longer asked to update previous years data alongside the current year (unless an error or omission is spotted).
22/10/2024	Guidance was added regarding linking cases.
01/05/2024	The Type of offence ‘Plagiarism unacknowledged copying from published sources including the internet incomplete referencing’ was split out to: • Plagiarism unacknowledged copying from published sources including the internet incomplete referencing and excluding the misuse of artificial intelligence • Plagiarism misuse of artificial intelligence

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