Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what contingency planning they undertook between August 2020 and January 2021 to prepare for the possibility that A-Level and GCSE examinations might be cancelled in 2021.

It was right that the department planned for exams to go ahead because they are the fairest method of assessing what students know and can do. Despite education remaining a national priority, the department remained conscious that the course of the virus and the subsequent extent of necessary public health restrictions would be unknown. We therefore worked closely with Ofqual and the exam boards to plan for a range of scenarios between August 2020 and January 2021. This allowed the department to launch the joint Department for Education and Ofqual consultation on alternative arrangements to exams on 15 January, soon after my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State’s statement to the house on 6 January that, given the further disruption to education, exams could not go ahead as planned.

The department has now confirmed further details on alternative arrangements to exams, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2021/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2021.