Guidance

Missing scripts: guide to the data submission process

Updated 15 June 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.

What data will be collected?

Data on whole missing scripts will be collected for GCSEs, AS and A levels. Partially missing scripts and non-examination assessment material are not included in this data collection. Data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, other UK regions and non-UK are required.

Updates to formats and guidance

This guidance document will be updated regularly. Any changes to procedure will be incorporated into the guidance document.

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.

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.

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.

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

Numeric values must not have any formatting.

Specification code values entered must exist on the JCQ classifications-entries spreadsheet. -2 accepted if candidates not certificating and taking units that can be used to certificate against more than one specification.

Applied subjects, double awards, single awards and full and short courses should be included.

Column headers must be an exact match.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
ExamSeries	Exam series data relates to, for example June 2017	1	^(January|June|March|November)([ ][0- 9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$	Full month name of exam series and year
ReportingDate	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 (four digits), a dash, month (two digits), a dash, day (two digits).
AwardingOrganisation	Name of the awarding organisation	3	^.{1,100}$	One to 100 characters accepted
QAN	Qualification Accreditation Number, for example 123/1234/1	4	^.{1,10}$	One to 10 characters accepted -2 also accepted
QualificationLevel	Level of qualification, for example GCSE	5	^(GCSE|AS|A level|GCE A level)$	One of the following list: GCSE, AS, A level, GCE A level. GCE A level accepted as a value for candidates not certificating, taking units that can be used to certificate against more than one specification, which could be either AS or A level.
UnitOrComponentCode	Unit or component code as designated in the specification.	6	^.{1,10}$	One to 10 characters accepted
SpecificationCode	Specification code also known as Subject Award Code and Cash-in Code	7	^.{1,7}$	One to 7 characters accepted -2 also accepted
SpecificationTitle	Specification title also known as subject title	8	^.{1,150}$	One to 150 characters accepted -2 also accepted
CentreNo	NCN number of centre at time of certification	9	^.{1,5}$	One to 5 characters accepted
UniqueCandidateIdentifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI)	10	^.{1,13}$	One to 13 characters accepted
StageScriptLost	To indicate when script was lost	11	^(before marking|post-marking)$	Accepted values: before marking post-marking
Cause	To indicate how the script was lost	12	See accepted values	Accepted values: lost in post - centre to AO lost in post - centre to scanning centre lost in post - centre to examiner lost in post - examiner to AO lost in post - AO to examiner lost in post - examiner to examiner lost within AO lost within courier premises lost within centre destroyed stolen cannot retrieve from examiner scanning issue other IT issue
Outcome	To indicate action taken	13	^(estimated marks|use marks already entered by assessors|retake assessment)$	Accepted values: estimated marks use marks already entered by assessors retake assessment
WholeCentreCohortAffected	To indicate whether the whole cohort from the centre was affected	14	^(Y|N)$	Accepted values: Y N

Accepted Cause Values

The following values are accepted for Cause field.

• lost in post - centre to AO
• lost in post - centre to scanning centre
• lost in post - centre to examiner
• lost in post - examiner to AO
• lost in post - AO to examiner
• lost in post - examiner to examiner
• lost within AO
• lost within courier premises
• lost within centre
• destroyed
• stolen
• cannot retrieve from examiner
• scanning issue
• other IT issue

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