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SATs Testing

I am a bit confused. Today, the hon. Gentleman is calling for a review of national testing and its future; yesterday, he said:"““There is no need for endless reviews about the future of the national tests.””" I am not sure whether he is calling today for a different review from the one that he rejected yesterday. To be fair to him, however, we have different and principled positions: I believe that it is important that we have continued externally validated national curriculum tests, and he does not—he calls them grotesque and he wants to abolish them. I should say to the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) that we no longer have any idea what the Conservative party's policy on externally validated tests is. I guess that we will have to wait for the outcome of its inquiry under Richard Sykes before we get more elucidation from the hon. Gentleman. However, the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) and I have different views. I am happy to reform, but I want to keep externally validated tests, and it is really important for parents, teachers and the Government that we do so. The hon. Gentleman asks whether we will abolish the £6.50 per script appeals charge. As he will know, there is a £6.50 charge only if the school fails in its appeal; if it succeeds, it does not pay a charge. Of course it is sensible to keep that charge in place, but if more appeals are successful, schools will not pay more charges. As I said—I am not being complacent about this—Ofqual has advised me on the basis of its work so far that there has not been a decline in marking quality, but it has also said that it continues to keep the issue under the review, and that is its role. That shows that I was right to introduce the principle of an independent regulator—Ofqual—last year so that it could play that role precisely. The hon. Gentleman asked when we became aware of the issues before us, and we were of course aware of them. The Schools Minister and I were aware of the problems that had occurred with ETS Europe before our exchange in the House of Commons on 19 May. Lord Sutherland will look into the detail of all this. We also took repeated and regular action in the following weeks in discussions with QCA, but, again, Lord Sutherland will look at that in his inquiry. I hope that he will report as soon as possible once he has collected his evidence in August and September. I hope that that will be in October, but, for today, I will say that it will be in the autumn, because I do not want to pre-empt his timetable, as that is for him to decide. However, I am clear that the sooner he can complete his report, the better. Finally, the hon. Gentleman asks at what point we should make decisions about the contract for the 2009 tests. He tries to lure me into providing a commentary on the discussions that are currently under way. He asks me to use words such as ““incompetent””, but I am not going to get into that. As I explained very clearly, the advice to me is that to secure the best interests of the taxpayer, schools and pupils, the right thing for me to do today is not to comment on discussions that are ongoing and very sensitive, so I will not comment on them. Obviously, however, the sooner information can be provided to the House, the better.