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Sutherland Inquiry

The position is clear: a school pays a financial penalty only if a review is unsuccessful. That is an important principle, as it means that it is not possible for there to be review after review. If there were no financial cost to a litigious review, everyone would appeal. We have had 200,000 reviews this year, compared to 50,000 in 2007, and it is estimated that a further, and final, 18,000 review outcomes will be issued to schools. The rise is partly due to concern about test marking, although in her letter to me today the head of Ofqual makes it clear that she retains the view that she expressed in July—that marking standards were maintained and that there was no decline in marking quality. The review process will continue and, as I have said, we decided some years ago to remove borderlining. Its abolition means that cases that in the old days would have been allowed a bit of an upgrade do not receive one now. That will have led to an increase in the number of reviews, but it is really important that the review process is undertaken properly and with integrity. A school that succeeds does not pay the fee, whereas one that fails does.