Information around Policies and Procedures
FOI reference: FOI24/25 173
Date received: 10/01/2025
Date responded: 03/03/2025
Information requested
I am writing to submit a Freedom of Information (FOI) request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I kindly request the following information:
1. Policies and Procedures
- Please provide the most recent version of your policies on grading appeals, special considerations, and malpractice investigations.
2. Results Data
- Please provide the distribution of grades awarded in English Language, English Literature, PE, Religious Studies, Computer Science and Art at N5 or Highers level for the past 5 years.
3. Fees and Costs
- What is the average cost of an exam paper for each subject at N5 and Highers levels?
- How much revenue was generated from re-marking and appeal services annually over the past 5 years?
4. Budget Allocation
- What percentage of your annual budget was allocated to examiner training and exam development annually over the past 5 years?
5. Online and Digital Exams
- How many exams were conducted digitally in the last 5 years, broken down by subject and year?
- Please also provide details on the security measures in place to prevent cheating in online exams during this period.
6. Exam Paper Security
- What procedures have been in place to ensure the security of exam papers before and during exams over the past 5 years?
If a five-year window is too difficult, three year periods are fine.
If possible, I would appreciate it if you could provide this information in tables as either Word documents or PDFs to facilitate understanding.
Response
Policies and Procedures
- Please provide the most recent version of your policies on grading appeals, special considerations, and malpractice investigations.
Please find attached our Appeals Service policy and our EECCs Policy.
There is no malpractice policy for investigations per se. The procedure for malpractice investigations is contained within the SQA website malpractice page
Reporting malpractice concerns - SQA
There are 2 documents published on this page
Malpractice: Information for Centres
for all qualifications other than those regulated by Ofqual and Qualification Wales and
for those qualifications regulated by Ofqual and Qualifications Wales. Both these documents describe the arrangements centres are expected to put in place to minimise malpractice and how we expect concerns of malpractice to be handled, if and when they arise.
Results Data
- Please provide the distribution of grades awarded in English Language, English Literature, PE, Religious Studies, Computer Science and Art at N5 or Highers level for the past 5 years.
The information you have requested is publicly available and is therefore exempt information under section 25(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).
The information regarding grades awarded is contained in our website using the following link:
Fees and Costs
- What is the average cost of an exam paper for each subject at N5 and Highers levels?
- How much revenue was generated from re-marking and appeal services annually over the past 5 years?
The average direct cost of production of a National 5 or Higher paper is £13k based on costs incurred in the last 3 years. Direct costs include the activity to create each paper including translation where needed and printing. The average cost of creation is £9k and print is £4k. This does not include related but indirect costs such as dispatch to centres, adaption of papers for ASN, indirect overhead costs.
There is variation in cost across subjects due to the comparative assessment approaches for different subjects - some have course work, some have optionality, different numbers of questions etc - and the number of entries and papers printed also leads to variable costs across subject and level. Some printing is done in house for very low uptake subjects and shown as zero cost here.
Please note that we do not charge for appeals, so no revenue was generated.
Budget Allocation
- What percentage of your annual budget was allocated to examiner training and exam development annually over the past 5 years?
The percentage of annual budget allocated to examiner training was, 0.1%* in 2020/21, 0.2%* in 2021/22, 1.2% in 2022/23, 1.2% in 2023/24 and 1.4% (estimated) for 2024/25.
* Impacted by the pandemic.
Online and Digital Exams
- How many exams were conducted digitally in the last 5 years, broken down by subject and year?
- Please also provide details on the security measures in place to prevent cheating in online exams during this period.
Section 17 of FOISA provides that where an authority does not hold information requested then it should notify the requester to that effect.
There have been no exams conducted digitally in the last five years.
Exam Paper Security
- What procedures have been in place to ensure the security of exam papers before and during exams over the past 5 years?
We have the following security measures in place to ensure the security of question paper materials before and during exam diets:
- Secure Storage Audit Checklist issued to all presenting centres, which ensures exam materials are stored securely when in centres. Unannounced audit visits are carried out by quality systems staff in operations
- SQA staff, suppliers and appointees follow strict security procedures when handling question paper materials with checks being carried out to ensure secure procedures are being followed at all times
- NQ Assessment Team hold the ISO27001 certificate
- Our printing suppliers hold ISO certification
Documents:
Appeals Service policy (489 KB)
EECCS policy (754 KB)