I must disagree with my hon. Friend, because the seriousness of the errors was not just in their number—I believe there were 13 errors in exam papers this summer. What was particularly serious was the fact that when we asked awarding bodies to check that there were no further errors, they affirmed that they had done so or that they would do so, but then new errors appeared. That is why what happened this summer was so serious rather than the initial errors in the papers.
On reputation and the market, all the main awarding bodies had errors, so there is no market mechanism—no one of them could say, ““We had no errors but the others did.”” My third argument is that all regulators have such powers. We cannot rely on the nuclear option of ending accreditation.
Education Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Nick Gibb
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 14 November 2011.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Education Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
535 c592 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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Timestamp
2023-12-15 19:16:51 +0000
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