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Students protest outside the DfE against the A-level and GCSE exam results before a government U-turn
Students protest outside the DfE against the A-level and GCSE exam results before a government U-turn. Photograph: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock
Students protest outside the DfE against the A-level and GCSE exam results before a government U-turn. Photograph: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock

Ofqual chief to face MPs over exams fiasco and botched algorithm grading

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Sally Collier to appear before education select committee over A-level and GCSE results debacle

Ofqual’s chief executive, Sally Collier, is expected to be hauled before MPs early next month to face questions about the exams fiasco, it has emerged.

Collier has made no public appearance or statement since the exams regulator announced it would ditch its grading algorithm, two days after education secretary Gavin Williamson said there would be “no U-turn, no change”.

She faces a grilling from MPs on the education select committee alongside Ofqual chair Roger Taylor when the Commons reconvenes in early September.

The committee, whose chair, Conservative MP Robert Halfon has been one of the harshest critics of the exams fiasco, is also expected to quiz Williamson in mid-September.

There has been speculation among education sources about Collier’s future in recent days, as she has remained absent from the public eye. An Ofqual spokesperson said on Thursday evening: “Sally Collier remains in her post as chief regulator for Ofqual.”

Labour has called on the government to publish all its correspondence about the regulator’s discredited algorithm, to “restore trust” after the crisis.

The shadow education secretary, Kate Green, has written to the cabinet secretary, urging him to make public correspondence and other documents that would allow detailed scrutiny of the events leading up to last week’s botched A-level results.

“The chaos, confusion, and lack of clarity around the actions of the department are unfair and disrespectful to the thousands of young people who are affected, and undermine trust in politics and politicians. Urgent action must be taken to rectify this,” she wrote.

The chief executive of Ofqual, Sally Collier. Photograph: Parliament TV

Green said: “Gavin Williamson was warned again and again about the problems with the grading algorithm, and time and time again, he did nothing.”

Education select committee member and Labour MP Kim Johnson said Williamson will face questions on why the committee’s July report on the likelihood of problems with A-levels was ignored.

She said: “We thought there would be problems but this was much worse than expected. I will be asking Williamson why was there a decision to change from centre assessed grades [schools’ recommendations] to the algorithm which has caused such mayhem. I want to know what advice and support he received later to change his mind? How was this model tested?

“Also I’d want to ask him where’s his boss been? Boris has been absent – not a word. And for Ofqual, they knew it was going to be a problem months ago so why did they not take advice? Why did they decide to go down that route?”

Williamson initially heaped blame on the exams regulator as he announced the algorithm had been dropped, claiming he had only become aware of the scale of the problems at the weekend.

He then appeared to change course, issuing a statement on Wednesday saying he had “full confidence”, in Ofqual.

Schools minister Nick Gibb – who is also expected to be called to give evidence to the committee, according to Westminster sources – apologised for the mess on Thursday. Gibb’s “obsession” with avoiding grade inflation has been blamed by some Tory MPs for the drastic downgrades administered by Ofqual’s model.

He apologised on Thursday, saying: “To those hundreds of thousands of young people receiving their GCSE grades and the A-level students receiving recalculated grades, I will say this to them: congratulations on what you have achieved. But also how sorry I am for the pain, the anxiety and the uncertainty that they will have suffered as a consequence of the grading issues we encountered last week.”

Pressure on Williamson from Tory colleagues remains intense, with the party’s new Scottish leader Douglas Ross suggesting he needed to “reflect” on the crisis. Ross is the most high-profile Tory to speak out publicly on Williamson’s future since the grades debacle erupted.

Asked whether he supported Williamson staying on in his job, Ross told BBC Radio Scotland: “That is a decision for Gavin Williamson. It’s a decision for the prime minister, if he continues to have the trust of the prime minister.

“I’m not here to say in your report that I think Gavin Williamson has done a great job and he should continue. I think he has to reflect on what happened to so many pupils in England, students who were concerned for four days, because we had the exact same up here in Scotland for a week.”

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chair of the powerful Commons liaison committee, said he was concerned that when a problem arises, “it is never the government’s fault”.

He said “there is a sort of pattern setting in” under Boris Johnson’s government where “something goes wrong and it is the permanent secretary’s fault or it is some public body’s fault”.

Johnson is on holiday in Scotland this week. He is expected to return to his desk in Downing Street on Monday.

The exams U-turn was the latest in a series of reversals made by the government in recent weeks, with others including free school meals, and the visa surcharge for migrant workers.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Labour seeks inquiry into huge jump in top grade A-levels at private schools

  • GCSE and A-level papers being sold on social media for £1

  • GCSEs and A-levels likely to be partly assessed by cut-down versions of exams

  • Gavin Williamson vows A-levels and GCSEs will not be cancelled in England

  • Tory MPs back ditching GCSE exams in English school system overhaul

  • Williamson told about flaws in A-level model two weeks before results

  • Gavin Williamson to blame for England exams fiasco, says Ofqual chair

  • Delay A-level and GCSE exams to give pupils more time, says Labour

  • Books seen behind Boris Johnson tell their own story

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