STORY
Ofqual has fined Cambridge English £875,000 after incorrect results were issued to thousands of candidates taking international English language tests. The regulator said computer automated marking errors affected the International English Language Testing System, known as IELTS, between August 2023 and September 2025.
The errors related to the listening and reading components of tests taken on screen, where responses were marked by a computer system using predefined answers set by human experts. Ofqual said 93,865 responses were incorrectly marked among 7.7 million tests, with 62,794 learners later issued corrected listening or reading results. A total of 21,717 candidates received a corrected overall qualification score.
Ofqual said 1,108 affected candidates had taken the Secure English Language Test version of IELTS, which is used for UK visa and immigration purposes, although the regulator said that figure did not confirm whether the qualification was used in a visa application. Cambridge English accepted the breaches and entered into a settlement agreement. Ofqual said the organisation had spent more than £6 million on correcting the errors, compensation, customer support and measures to prevent a recurrence.