Listen to this story Members can listen to an AI-generated audio version of this article. 1.0x Audio narration uses an AI-generated voice. 0:00 0:00 Become a member to listen to this article Subscribe Ofqual chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham has issued his first formal ‘rebuke’ to an exam board over ‘serious failures’ between 2019 and 2025. WJEC was found to have failed to collect and monitor centre declaration forms for four of its Eduqas GCSE, AS and A Level qualifications over six years, which are offered in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Ofqual rebuke was first introduced as an enforcement tool in October. It is used for cases deemed serious enough for an awarding body to be publicly held to account, but that do not warrant a fine. A WJEC spokesperson said the exam board regretted the instances of non-compliance, and that measures had been strengthened to prevent them from happening again. The declaration forms are required to show that centres have complied with the subject content requirements. WJEC admitted it had failed to make relevant staff aware of the requirements related to the declaration forms. The qualifications affected included GCSE drama, AS and A Level drama and theatre, GCSE geography, and GCSE computer science. ‘No evidence for adverse effect on learners’ Bauckham said the rebuke “demonstrates our commitment to taking action to protect students and uphold public confidence in qualifications”. He added: “The circumstances of this case include that there was no evidence to indicate any actual adverse effects on students. “However, these failings by WJEC represent serious breaches of Ofqual’s conditions across multiple subjects and years. “The failures had the potential to prejudice students and undermine public confidence in the validity of regulated qualifications.” In its report, Ofqual acknowledged that WJEC had “taken steps to rectify its processes and prevent reoccurrence”, but that the failures “undermined essential assurance mechanisms”. It added that the rebuke served as a “formal expression” of concern and set an expectation for WJEC to ensure it has “a strong regulatory compliance culture, systems and oversight to prevent similar incidents recurring in the future”. The WJEC spokesperson said: “We take full responsibility and acknowledge that we did not meet the high standards expected of us. “We have cooperated fully with Ofqual throughout this process and have undertaken a comprehensive review of our procedures. “We have implemented strengthened measures to ensure this does not happen again, and we want to reassure learners and centres of our ongoing commitment to maintaining the highest standards.” WJEC has entries for more than 4,200 centres in England, and accounted for 7.1 per cent of GCSE exams and 6.2 per cent of A Level exams in 2024-25.