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 issued £2.5 million in penalties last year, the highest total since it gained power to fine rule-breaking awarding organisations in 2012. The qualification regulator’s 2025-26 annual report for the year to March 31, published today, shows fines more than tripled from £805,000 the previous year and surpassed the previous high of £1.35 million in 2022-23. Six monetary penalties were issued against four awarding organisations in 2025-26. Pearson was hit with £2 million in fines in December 2025 for “serious” rule breaches that affected tens of thousands of students taking language qualifications, including GCSE resits. That alone was enough to break Ofqual’s previous penalty record. The year also saw financial sanctions on WJEC worth £350,000, University of West London was fined £350,000 and ProQual paid out £15,000. Fines are not retained by Ofqual but are paid to the Treasury. But the regulator does keep funds it recovers in costs, which amounted to £63,000 in 2025-26, up from £15,000 the year before. Slowly at first FE Week analysed every monetary penalty Ofqual has imposed since the power came into force on May 1, 2012. The regulator did not impose a fine for more than four years. Its first was £38,000 against City & Guilds in August 2016, over the late release of results for 22,229 learners. In total, Ofqual has fined awarding organisations £5.63 million. Almost half of that, £2.52 million, came last year, and £3.33 million came in the last two years. Ofqual issued no fines in three of the past ten years: 2015-16, 2020-21 and 2023-24. In four more, the annual total came to less than £405,000. Last year’s number of penalties – six – topped the previous high of five issued in 2024-25. Fine words Ofqual’s strategic enforcement committee met once during the year and scrutinised how fines were determined, alongside the regulator’s fining history, the new report said. The committee also examined the chief regulator’s rebuke, a new enforcement tool introduced in October 2025 for breaches serious enough to require a public outcome but which fall short of meriting a financial penalty. Ofqual did not use it during the reporting year, but has used it twice in the current financial year. WJEC was rebuked in April over centre declaration forms that were missing across three subjects between 2019 and 2025, seven months after being fined £350,000. Pearson was rebuked in May over the design and delivery of its 2025 A Level maths exams, sat by around 75,000 students. That rebuke was published earlier this month, having been held back while this summer’s exams were running. Meanwhile, Ofqual imposed special conditions on awarding organisations on 23 occasions in the last financial year, covering 19 existing organisations and four newly recognised ones. It opened four investigations, up from one the previous year. A separate regulatory efficiency report, also published today, sets out how Ofqual has cut the burden it places on awarding organisations. Among the efficiency measures it lists is the introduction of the rebuke, credited with streamlining investigations and enforcement routes. A head start The financial fines record is unlikely to survive the year. Ofqual has already imposed £1.145 million of fines in the first quarter of 2026-27, with penalties of £270,000 against Cambridge OCR in April and £875,000 against Cambridge English in June. That is more than the regulator imposed in any full year before 2022-23.