GovWire

Key headlines

The key headlines for cases of malpractice for which a penalty was issued (proven cases of malpractice) in GCSE, AS and A level qualifications for the summer 2024 exam series were:

1. The number of proven cases of malpractice involving students increased compared with the previous year. There were 5,190 cases of malpractice involving students in summer 2024, up 5.9% from 4,900 cases in summer 2023. This is small when compared with the 17.6 and 16.9 million GCSE, AS and A level entries (at component level) in summer 2024 and summer 2023 respectively.
2. For student malpractice, 41.4% of all cases involved mobile phone and other communication device offences. This continued to be the most common offence type for student malpractice with 2,145 cases with penalties for this type of offence in summer 2024, compared with 2,180 (44.5%) in summer 2023.
3. The number of cases of malpractice (including maladministration) involving school or college staff increased compared with the previous year. 250 cases of malpractice included members of staff in summer 2024, up from 230 in summer 2023. Only a small proportion of the total number of staff in England (over 365,000 full time equivalent teachers and support staff in state funded secondary schools) were involved in malpractice cases.
4. There were 145 cases of school or college level malpractice (including maladministration) in summer 2024, up from 55 in summer 2023. This is more in line with figures from pre-pandemic years. For more information on these years please see the summer 2023 published report.