Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons BTEC students studying with multiple examination boards had delays in receiving their results in summer 2022; and if he will make a statement.

Final grades for BTECs are awarded differently to GCSEs and A levels – they are modular assessments from a range of different sources and can be awarded year-round. A claim needs to be sent to the awarding organisation for the final grade to be calculated. If this claim is not finalised the final award cannot be made. The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is responsible for ensuring that awarding organisations deliver qualifications in line with their regulations, this includes the awarding of grades. The department met daily with Ofqual and UCAS to ensure swift action was taken to get any delayed grades to students promptly, particularly those who needed their results for a higher education place. These meetings ended when we were fully assured that these students had received their grades.

Ofqual has now initiated a full review of what happened, to establish the contributing factors, and confirmed they will take regulatory action, if appropriate.

The mid-course grades for assessments taken this summer by Health and Science T Level students were sent to the ‘Manage T Level Results’ service, administered by the department. Since then, we have worked closely with Ofqual, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, the awarding organisation concerned and with schools and colleges, to develop mitigations that support students to receive grades that reflect their performance and will allow them to progress to the next stage of their careers.