Transparency data

Chief Regulator's report: 19 March 2025

Published 23 September 2025

Applies to England

Report by

Sir Ian Bauckham, Chief Regulator

Paper for information and discussion

Recommendations

1. The board is asked to note the matters reported.

Overview

2. My appointment to the post of Chief Regulator for a term of 5 years was confirmed by the Secretary of State on 6 February following approval by the King-in-Privy Council. My term commenced on that date and will end on the same date in 2030.

3. Ofqual continues to work closely with DfE on the government’s priorities for education, including the establishment of Skills England, apprenticeships reform and the Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR). In January I had positive discussions separately with the Permanent Secretary, Minister McKinnell and Minister Smith on these areas of policy.

4. On 3 February I attended the Secretary of State’s speech where plans were laid out for a new era in school standards.

5. In the coming weeks I and colleagues will brief DfE senior officials and ministers on the 2025 summer series.

6. I and the Executive team have spent considerable time this quarter focusing on business plans and budgets for 2025 to 2026. We have made decisions on prioritisation which ensure our plans match our capacity and funding and which we propose to the board today.

7. Work continues on the development of Ofqual’s corporate strategy, to be launched next month.

Curriculum and Assessment Review

8. The CAR panel continues to discuss matters related to qualification landscape design.  Relationships with DfE on CAR remain strong and productive and there is good appetite to work collaboratively across all GQ and VTQ work strands.

9. Publication of the interim report is expected in mid to late March.

Skills England

10. New senior appointments to Skills England have been announced. The new joint CEOs, Tessa Griffiths and Sarah Maclean, are well known to us.

11. The IfATE Transfer of Functions Bill continues its passage through Parliament, having been debated in the House of Commons on 25 February.

Apprenticeships

12. DfE announced a new set of principles for apprenticeship end-point assessment during National Apprenticeships Week in February, signalling significant reform which impacts over 150 AOs.

13. Ofqual is making plans to revise the regulatory framework in light of these principles. This is covered in a separate item on the agenda.

Defunding Pause and Review

14. On 12 December 2024, DfE published the outcomes of its rapid review of level 3 qualifications that under the previous government were due to lose public funding for new enrolments from August 2025. This included where this had been deferred from August 2024. Of 539 qualifications in scope, DfE confirmed that 382 will still be defunded from August 2025, while 157 will be funded for new enrolments until at least August 2026. Of the 382 qualifications that will still be defunded for new enrolments, in the majority of cases (216) this was on the basis that they had fewer than 100 enrolments each year over a 3-year period.

15. DfE subsequently published details on 6 February of a further opportunity this spring for AOs to submit level 3 qualifications for approval, with first teaching from September 2026. This is largely a ‘wash up’ exercise from cycle one of the qualifications review, with AOs able to submit qualifications in the same sectors and subject areas – the Health and Science, Education and Early Years, Construction and Digital routes, with the addition of Care Services. Submission volumes are expected to be relatively low (c. 60 qualifications across c. 20 AOs); this is much lower than the original cycle 2 scope (c. 500 qualifications across c. 90 AOs).

GCSE English language and maths resits

16. Results were issued by exam boards on 9 January for the November 2024 resit series for GCSE English language and maths. The release of results did not attract significant attention from the sector and passed without issue.

Autumn and winter VTQ series 

17. The autumn and winter series for VTQs and Technical Qualifications in T Levels has progressed smoothly, with a small number of low level event notifications submitted by AOs.

Summer series 2025

General Qualifications

18. Readiness reviews with the exam boards ahead of the summer series are complete. We have held a first readiness review with the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO).

19. As at the end of February, marker recruitment was ahead compared to the same point last year, with exam boards ranging from 88% to 96% for examiner contracts accepted.

Vocational and Technical Qualifications

20. Readiness reviews are in progress with AOs offering series-based VTQs and issuing results in August. This includes reviews conducted jointly with GQ of VTQs delivered by the exam boards. VTQ readiness reviews will conclude by April.

21. Where AOs also offer T Levels, IfATE is joining the meetings for relevant agenda items. No new risks have been identified to date and no significant concerns have been flagged or identified.

22. The VTQ Results Group of AOs and sector stakeholders continues to meet regularly to track progress towards the timely delivery of results in August.

National Reference Test 2025

23. The National Reference Tests in English language and maths were administered in schools between 21 February and 10 March. 359 schools were due to take part, corresponding to a sample of around 8,600 students taking each subject. Results of the NRT will become available in May, based on which I will decide whether or not an adjustment should be applied to GCSE English language and/or maths awards this summer.

Access arrangements

24. We are gathering evidence about use of reasonable adjustments and access arrangements, including applications for 25% extra time.

Communications and stakeholder engagement

25. We set out to the board at the February strategy meeting Ofqual’s strategic priorities for communications and stakeholder engagement in 2025.

26. I and the Deputy Chief Regulator are speaking in March at conferences hosted by AoC and ASCL. We are setting out our key messages for 2025 at these events, including on grading, resilience, the role of exams officers as well as on screen assessment and AI. At AoC, our focus is also on the VTQ landscape.

27. GQ and VTQ colleagues have spoken at six Exams Office conferences across the country since the start of the year, reaching more than 1,600 exams officers. Feedback was positive and such events continue to be a good way for us to communicate directly with this important stakeholder group.

28. In National Apprenticeships Week (10 to 16 February) I attended a parliamentary reception to celebrate the 2025 Apprenticeship and Training Awards national finalists, organised by FE Week and AELP and hosted by the Speaker of the House of Commons, The Rt Hon Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP. The Deputy Chief Regulator, Michael Hanton, visited Slough and Langlet college (part of the Windsor Forest Colleges Group) to speak to apprentices training in the field of aviation and working with Heathrow Airport.

29. I have had insightful visits to the JCB Academy in Uttoxeter, specialising in engineering and business qualifications, and to Alder Hey hospital school in Liverpool.

Regulation of National Assessments

Key stage 2 test delivery in 2025

30. STA continues to confirm that Capita is meeting the key milestones for the 2025 cycle.

Updated Ofqual - STA MoU

31. We are publishing in March amendments to Ofqual’s MoU with STA, to reflect the new ways of working recently established.

Consultation on the introduction of principles to our regulatory framework

32. Whether Ofqual should adopt new principles into its regulatory requirements was considered by the board in July 2024 and it was agreed that we would consult on this matter.

33. The consultation ran between 6 November 2024 and 12 February 2025. It set out our proposal to introduce a new General Condition of Recognition containing 6 overarching principles, with associated statutory guidance to help awarding organisations understand the principles. We held 2 events for AOs on the proposals during the consultation period, with over 200 attendees.

34. We received 49 responses to the consultation. The majority were official responses from AOs, or responses from their employees or their representative organisations. We are now analysing the responses to consider whether changes are needed to the proposals on which we consulted. We plan to return to the board on this issue with a final set of proposals for decision at its next meeting in July.

Development of GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL)

35. In February the Technical Committee considered and approved proposals to consult publicly on the draft regulatory requirements for GCSE qualifications in BSL. Consultation documentation and draft conditions, requirements and guidance are being finalised, and we are engaging with the specialist translation company who will produce BSL versions of these materials. We aim to launch the consultation in April. We will return to the Technical Committee with recommendations for decisions later this year.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Regulation of AI in assessment

36. Having developed our approach to supporting guidance on the use of AI by AOs, we are now planning how best to share our thinking and gather views from AOs. We aim to launch engagement activities with AOs later in the year.

Internal use of AI

37. Work is ongoing to understand how we could use AI internally to help us to be a more efficient and effective regulator. We have been guided by the HMG Generative AI Framework and are also referring to the new guidance in the AI Playbook for UK government.

38. Colleagues are testing a range of tools, including GitHub Copilot, the Government Communication Services Assist tool and the free and paid for versions of Microsoft Copilot. Based on feedback from the internal trial of the paid version of Copilot, we are now focusing licences on those areas we consider have potential for the greatest efficiency and productivity benefits, such as project management teams.

Regulatory action

39. A notice of intention to agree a fine settlement with Pearson was published on 31 January, for breaches in 2023 relating to management of conflicts of interest. As part of the settlement arrangements, Pearson indicated it would not make any representations. The opportunity for interested parties to make representations closed on 14 February, with none being made. The Enforcement Panel will be invited to finalise its decision in due course.

40. A notice of intention to accept a settlement proposal from the British Safety Council was published on 27 February. This relates to issues with their level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment qualifications between 2018 and 2020. The opportunity for interested parties to make representations closes on 13 March.

Consultation on Taking Regulatory Action

41. Following discussion with the board in the December meeting, changes to improve the way Ofqual both supports compliance and takes regulatory action were put out for consultation on 20 February, with a closing date of 15 May.

42. Proposals include: - a streamlined process for settling simple cases quickly, where organisations agree they have breached Ofqual’s conditions; - a new sanction of a public rebuke from the regulator in cases where it’s right that a failure to follow regulatory rules be addressed formally and publicly, but where a fine may not be proportionate.

43. The updated policy, ‘Supporting Compliance and Taking Regulatory Action’, will include a new section explaining the ways Ofqual can support awarding organisations to meet its requirements and avoid the need for formal enforcement action. We will bring to the board post consultation final proposals for approval.

Qualification fraud action plan

44. Following the launch of our qualification fraud action plan in November, 42 AOs have confirmed their commitment to tackling qualification fraud. A number of partners, including the Security Industry Authority (SIA), Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Home Office and Office for Students have also agreed to be included in our work to deliver the plan.

45. We are now planning our next AO taskforce and a follow up summit in 2025. We are engaging with AOs on new data collections to better inform our and AOs’ understanding of fraud risk. We continue to work with stakeholders and have built new connections with ESFA, Student Finance England, Companies House, NHS Counter Fraud and UK Visas and Immigration.

Qualifications that are designed to Confirm the Acquisition of Specified Learning Outcomes (CASLO)

46. We have received a positive response to the 9 CASLO reports we published and launched at a successful event last November. An engagement event with AOs took place on 6 March and was well received, and a further event with academics is planned for the autumn.

Corporate and people matters

Finance 

47. As we progress through the final quarter of the year, forecasts remain stable at a moderate projected underspend for the year.

48. From a financial planning perspective, the budgeting process has been completed for the next financial year and a balanced budget is presented for board’s sign-off under a separate agenda item.

49. Ofqual continues to engage with HM Treasury on the second phase of the Spending Review 2025 which is well underway. An interim submission SR25 has been made in accordance with HMT’s timetable and our final submission will be submitted on 10 April, following board approval.

2024 people survey

50. We continue to focus on the outputs of the Civil Service People Survey. Directorate plans are being established to ensure specific areas are addressed.

Publication of paper:
Paper to be published: Yes