Research and analysis

Background information for modified papers for GCSE, AS and A level: 2014 to 2024

Published 17 July 2025

Applies to England

Purpose

Schools, colleges and other exam centres (which for the remainder of this document will be referred to as ‘schools and colleges’) order modified question papers in advance of a specific exam series. Exam boards prepare modified papers for students, for example with visual impairments, to allow them to demonstrate their skills, knowledge and understanding.

These figures were originally reported as part of Ofqual’s annual access arrangements official statistics, published between 2014 and 2024.

Following the withdrawal of those statistics in 2025, the modified papers data has been republished in this separate release to allow continued access for users. For more details, see the access arrangements statistics landing page.

Scope of the data

While modified papers can be used for exams in any assessment series, Ofqual only reports data on the summer exam series.

The data within this release relates only to numbers of modified papers provided by exam boards to schools and colleges for students in England, for exams taken in each summer series as part of a GCSE, AS or A level qualification.

Data comes from the 4 exam boards offering GCSE, AS and A level qualifications:

• AQA Education (AQA)
• Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR)
• Pearson Education Ltd. (Pearson)
• WJEC-CBAC Ltd. (WJEC/Eduqas)

Requirements for modified paper requests are set and outlined by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) in their guidance on access arrangements and reasonable adjustments.

An order for a modified paper is made for each individual exam paper. Therefore, an individual student may use multiple modified papers in a single exam series.

For some types of modified papers, for example non-interactive electronic (PDF) question papers, schools and colleges only need to make one request per paper to the exam board and can then use it for multiple students that need it. They might also make copies on larger or coloured paper, for example. As the school or college only requested one modified paper in these instances, this will only appear as one request in the figures reported.

The above points mean that the figures reported in this release may not necessarily reflect the total number of modified papers actually used in any given exam series.

There has been some variation over time in the exam boards’ requirements for ordering modified papers. Since this data reflects the exam boards’ fulfilled orders for modified papers, the data will be impacted by any changes to requirements over time.      

Context

Modified papers are a form of access arrangement. Full details on modified papers and other types of access arrangements are provided by JCQ.

Access arrangements, including modified papers, are the provisions made for students, agreed before they take an assessment, to ensure that they can be validly assessed and are not unfairly disadvantaged due to a disability, temporary illness or injury . Access arrangements can be provided for any students taking exams or non-exam assessments who meet the eligibility criteria.

Access arrangements granted for disabled students are provided as ‘reasonable adjustments’.

Where access arrangements are granted for students who have experienced a temporary illness or injury, or some other event outside of the student’s control which is not related to disability, these are referred to as ‘granted as a form of special consideration’ within Ofqual’s regulatory requirements. The same categories of access arrangements may be used for both reasonable adjustments and special consideration.

Please note, the term ‘special consideration’ can also refer to a post-examination adjustment to a student’s mark or grade to reflect temporary illness or injury, or some other event outside their control, which has had, or is reasonably likely to have had, a material effect on their ability to take an assessment or demonstrate their level of attainment in an assessment. These post-examination adjustments are distinct from the special consideration access arrangements granted prior to an assessment being taken. A separate publication reports the number of post-examination special consideration requests for the summer GCSE, AS and A level series.

Duties and regulation

If a student has a disability (as defined by the Equality Act 2010, meaning the student has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities) they are entitled to reasonable adjustments, which awarding organisations administer through their access arrangements process. Awarding organisations have a duty, under the Equality Act 2010, to make reasonable adjustments to assessments for disabled students who, because of their disability, would otherwise be at a substantial disadvantage when demonstrating their skills, knowledge or understanding in an assessment. The Equality Act sets out that awarding organisations are required to take ‘such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage’. The awarding organisations may choose to address this by taking steps such as providing modified question papers for students with visual impairments.

Section 96(7) of the Act gives the appropriate regulator – Ofqual in England – the power to prohibit or limit the extent to which awarding organisations must make or allow reasonable adjustments for specified general qualifications. Following decisions taken by the Secretary of State for Education, the specified general qualifications include GCSE, AS and A level. Ofqual does this by setting out the Specifications in relation to the reasonable adjustment of general qualifications. Our specifications only remove the duty on awarding organisations to make reasonable adjustments within the confines of those specifications. Where we have not made a relevant specification, awarding organisations remain under a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students.

The qualifications covered in this release are regulated by Ofqual, which publishes General Conditions of Recognition that set out the requirements that the awarding organisations it regulates have to meet. These conditions state that “an awarding organisation must, in accordance with Equalities Law, have in place clear arrangements for making Reasonable Adjustments in relation to qualifications which it makes available.” Awarding organisations must also set out how a learner can qualify for special consideration.

Ofqual does not prescribe what arrangements awarding organisations should provide, but requires all awarding organisations to have clear, published details about who qualifies for these arrangements and what arrangements may be given. Awarding organisations choose to follow JCQ guidelines in relation to the provision of these arrangements. JCQ is a membership organisation comprising the 8 largest providers of qualifications in the UK, including the 4 exam boards that offer GCSE, AS and A level qualifications, and provides a JCQ definition of access arrangements as pre-examination adjustments for students based on evidence of need and normal way of working. JCQ guidance on access arrangements can be found on its website. This guidance is updated annually and sets out the arrangements that exam centres can request of boards and the relevant eligibility and evidential criteria.

Data source

Each exam board submits data to Ofqual in relation to the number of modified papers it provides to schools and colleges. A full description of modified papers is published by JCQ.

Limitations

There is potential for error in the information provided by exam boards. Ofqual compares the data over time and checks for systematic issues with the data. Summary data are sent back to awarding organisations for checking and confirmation.

Confidentiality and rounding

To ensure confidentiality of the accompanying data, the figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. If the value is less than 5 (1 to 4), it is represented as ‘Fewer than 5’ and 0 represents zero modified papers.

Total values of rows or columns are calculated using unrounded figures; the sum of rounded figures may differ from the total reported.

Related publications

For statistics on other access arrangements, see our access arrangements statistics collection page.

For other Ofqual statistics, see Statistics at Ofqual.

Head of profession: Ben Cuff