Guidance

Word-processed scripts: guide to the data submission process

Published 3 August 2026

Applies to England and Northern Ireland

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. 

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 exam scripts where students used a word processor to answer questions in their exam. This includes scripts where students typed responses using a word processor of any kind, including but not limited to a Word document, Notepad document, interactive PDF, or similar arrangement, for all or part of their examination. If possible, students for whom scripts were generated through the use of a scribe or speech-to-text software should be excluded.

Qualifications in scope

The following qualification types are in scope of this collection:

• GCSE
• AS
• A Level

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 at multiple points during the year for the June and November exam series. For detail on the exam series in scope of each return please see the reporting schedule.

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

The following additional guidance has been provided for completing this template:

1. Numeric values must not have any formatting.
2. All fields are mandatory unless otherwise specified.
3. Submit 1 row of data per student per component.
4. Provide data only for students who used word processing to answer questions in their examination components. This includes for example, students who typed responses using a Word document, Notepad document, interactive PDF, or similar arrangement. There is no need to include students who did not use any word processing in an examination.
5. If possible, students for whom scripts were generated through the use of a scribe or speech-to-text software should be excluded.

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 2026	2	Full month name of exam series and year	^(June|November)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$
AwardingOrganisation	Awarding organisation acronym as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated organisations	3	1 to 100 characters accepted	^.{1,100}$
QualificationType	Type of qualification	4	Accepted values: • GCSE • AS • A level	^(GCSE|AS|A level)$
QualificationNumber	The unique identifier for the qualification as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated qualifications, for example, 123/1234/1	5	Valid qualification number. 10 characters accepted	^.{10}$
SpecificationCode	Specification code, also known as subject award code and cash-in code	6	1 to 7 characters accepted	^.{1,7}$
SpecificationTitle	Specification title, also known as subject title	7	1 to 150 characters accepted	^.{1,150}$
CertificationCode	Certification code also known as entry or option code	8	1 to 7 characters accepted	^.{1,7}$
ComponentCode	Component code as designated in the specification	9	1 to 10 characters accepted	^.{1,10}$
CentreNumber	Centre’s National Centre Number (NCN) as allocated by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ)	10	Valid NCN code 5-digit integer accepted	^\d{5}$
CentreCandidateNumber	Student identifier as supplied by the centre	11	1 to 10 characters accepted	^.{1,10}$
UniqueCandidateIdentifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI)	12	Valid UCI Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted. -2 accepted if not available	^(?:-2|.{13})$
UniqueLearnerNumber	Unique Learner Number (ULN) provided by the Learning Records Service.	13	Valid ULN. 10 digits accepted -2 accepted if not available	^(-2|\d{10})$
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	14	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	15	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	16	1 to 150 characters accepted	^.{1,150}$
DateOfBirth	Student’s date of birth	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 2999-12-31 accepted if DOB unknown	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
WordProcessorUsed	To indicate if a student used a word processor, either completely or in addition to a printed answer booklet At present, all values are expected to be “Yes”	18	Accepted value: • Yes	^(Yes)$

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’ value 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
‘AwardingOrganisation’ is valid acronym	Fail and rejected

Recent changes to this guidance

Date of change	Description of change
02/02/2026	First issue of the document template

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