SQA Malpractice cases involving SQA Internal Assessment

Date published: 03/04/2025

The number of SQA Malpractice cases investigated (and concluded that malpractice had taken place) involving any form of SQA Internal Assessment in the last five school years please. That would be each school year for the last five years and the number of malpractice cases concluded in Scotland. 

The number of SQA Malpractice cases investigated (and concluded that malpractice had taken place) involving any form of SQA Internal Assessment in the last five school years for schools within East Ayrshire too please.

On our website we publish annual reports on centre malpractice indicating the number of referrals that have proceeded to investigation and the number of those that concluded with a finding of malpractice over each calendar year.  The report also indicates the number of referrals that relate to National Qualifications and other qualification types. These are available using the following link:

Reporting malpractice concerns

However, we do not produce the information broken down by local authority or by assessment type. Information relating to centre malpractice is very sensitive, for centres, their staff and any candidates affected and should not be placed into the public domain. In any breakdown, the numbers are likely to be smaller and makes it more likely that individual cases could be identified.

In order to fulfil the statutory duties to maintain the integrity of the national qualifications system set out in the Education (Scotland) Act 1996, SQA relies on proactive disclosures of and candid responses to investigations of centre malpractice concerns. SQA’s view is that publication of information at the more granular level requested would be likely to cause substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs, because there is potential for this to lead to wider discussion of confidential investigations that would deter future proactive disclosures and candid responses. Therefore, information broken down by assessment type and information for East Ayrshire Council specifically will not be provided, in accordance with the exemption described at s30(c) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. It is SQA’s view that it is not in the public interest for this more detailed information to be provided.

I can confirm that copies of SQA panel decision letters for centre malpractice investigations relating to local authority schools are routinely shared with the Director of Education for the relevant local authority, whether the investigation concludes in a finding of malpractice or not.