Ofqual
Ofqual gives notice that it intends to accept a Settlement Proposal under which City & Guilds:
- Admits that it breached its Conditions of Recognition as set out in an Ofqual Investigation Report completed in September 2023 and in its annual statement of compliance for 2022,
- Agrees that Ofqual is at liberty to take regulatory action in respect of the breaches of its Conditions of Recognition which City & Guilds admitted when it gave an Undertaking to Ofqual in May 2021,
- Agrees to pay a monetary penalty in the sum of 200,000, and
- Agrees to pay Ofquals reasonable legal costs.
Following a number of Event Notifications it submitted in 2018 and 2019, City & Guilds developed an action plan which it anticipated would resolve the issues with its governance, systems and processes which gave rise to those incidents. City & Guilds provided an Undertaking to Ofqual in May 2021 which concerned the delivery of that action plan. City & Guilds admitted 63 breaches of 8 Conditions when it gave the Undertaking.
Ofquals monitoring of the Event Notifications submitted by City & Guilds between April 2022 and June 2023 identified an overlap between those notifications and the Conditions identified in the Undertaking, which caused Ofqual to investigate the circumstances of the Event Notifications submitted between 1 April 2022 and 31 May 2023. In its investigation report dated 26 September 2023, Ofqual identified 60 Event Notifications which were similar in nature to the incidents which gave rise to the Undertaking in May 2021.
City & Guilds agrees that the action plan it developed alongside the Undertaking was insufficiently robust, that it did not deliver the improvements it was intended to deliver and that at least some of the incidents considered during the investigation could have been prevented had the action plan been sufficiently robust. Ofqual accepts that the action plan was created in good faith.
The fine Ofqual intends to impose reflects the totality of the breaches of the Conditions which City & Guilds admitted when it gave the Undertaking in May 2021, which it admitted in relation to its annual statement of compliance in 2022 and which Ofqual identified in its Investigation Report. Ofqual has identified a number of aggravating factors, which include the fact that several of the Event Notifications considered by the investigation were submitted late.
Ofqual agrees that there are a number of mitigating factors.These include the progress City & Guilds has already made and has committed to make in the implementation of a multi-million pound programme to transform its business operations in relation to the development, delivery and award of qualifications. This transformation programme has involved a number of changes such as strengthened governance; improved risk management; investment in training, systems and processes and supporting specialist software; and implementation of new quality management policy, strategy and system.
Interested parties now have 14 days to make representations in respect of Ofquals proposal to impose a monetary penalty in line with the settlement proposal.