SWQR Ticket Numbers

Date published: 28/01/2026

I would like FOUR questions answered please with the information you hold under your duty via the Freedom of Information(Scotland) Act 2002 and within the ICO's parameters regarding Information held.

Question 1

How many SWQR tickets on average per year have been issued since the Statutory NRSWA 1991 was conceived?

Question 2

How many SWQR tickets where issued in 2025 to date from Jan 1st 2025 that contained a Unit O1 Qualification within the ticket.

Question 3

How many of them where SWQR ticket requests where applied for by the Awarding Organisation called LANTRA for all SWQR qualifications since its inception?

Question 4

How many ON-SITE compliance inspections where done by SWQR officials  with Local Authorities or on the Strategic Road Network in 2025 to date?

Question 1

We do not retain candidate data going back to 1991. However, we can report that on average we issue between 40,000 to 50,000 cards per annum, including replacements, re-registrations, initials and re-assessments.

Question 2

There were 42,068 tickets issued that contained a Unit 01 Qualification between 01 January to 31 December 2025.

Question 3

The request asks for how many ticket requests were applied for by LANTRA. Being an awarding body LANTRA does not submit applications, their centres do. However, this information is considered to be exempt under section 33 (1)(b) of the Act, commercial interests and the economy.

LANTRA is one of the eight awarding bodies competing for the market share (candidates and centres). It should be noted that when all of the awarding organisations meet, the number of candidates and centres each organisation has is not discussed. Indeed if the industry body, HAUC UK, were to request this information, the awarding organisations would refuse it due to its commercial sensitivity. Releasing the information could allow other competing awarding organisations to use the information to target LANTRA’s market share, thus substantially prejudicing their commercial interests.

When an authority applies a section 33 exemption it must undertake a public interest test. Whilst it is appreciated that there may be interest in the financial situation of SQA, we also have a duty to protect the financial interest of other organisations if there is a possibility of these being harmed in any way. Releasing the information would provide competing organisations with information that could harm the commercial interests of LANTRA.

Accordingly it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption is greater than releasing it.

The information provided to SWQR by LANTRA is also considered to be exempt under section 36 (2)(a) and (b) as it is provided in a confidential manner and is not shared with SQA, or any other awarding organisation. There is a duty to protect the interests of all organisations, in this case LANTRA and releasing this information could be considered a breach of confidence actionable by them.

Question 4

Under section 17. When an authority does not hold information requested, it must inform the requester.

SQA does not hold the information requested as SWQR does not have any compliance inspection powers. Accordingly, there is no information available.