News

---

This is a summary of the malpractice allegations reported to awarding bodies between 1 December 2007 and 29 February 2008, as well as the resulting actions taken by the awarding bodies during the same period. This page is updated on a quarterly basis.

Malpractice may include such things as:

• Training being delivered in less than the required hours
• Inappropriate support being offered to non-English speakers
• Inappropriate behaviour during the exam process that leads to candidates having an advantage over other candidates taking the same exam.

A single training and assessment centre may be the subject of several different allegations. In addition, an allegation may refer to a single candidate or to the behaviour of staff at a training centre. This makes it difficult for us to know exactly how many individual qualifications are affected by an allegation of malpractice.

Reported Allegations by Sector

A total of 21 allegations were made during the reporting period. The table below shows a breakdown of these by sector. It also shows the overall number of qualifications awarded in the same period.

Action Taken by Awarding Bodies

Of the 21 reported cases of malpractice identified above:

• 7 cases were under investigation as of 29 February 2008
• 4 cases had been closed after the awarding bodies had investigated the allegations and reported their findings.
• 3 cases had been closed due to lack of evidence of wrong-doing or insufficient information to identify the centre.
• 5 training centres had been placed under temporary suspension, pending further investigations
• 1 training centre had its centre approval status withdrawn.
• 1 training centre had been given a caution flag by the qualifications regulator.

Last updated 29 April 2008.