Ofqual’s chief regulator has issued his first formal “rebuke” to an exam board for “serious failures” over a six year period. The exams watchdog said WJEC failed to collect and monitor centre declaration forms for four of its Eduqas GCSE, AS and A Level qualifications between 2019 and 2025, which are offered in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The rebuke was first introduced as an enforcement tool in October 2025. It is used for cases that are serious enough to be publicly held to account, but do not warrant a fine. A WJEC spokesperson said they regretted the instances of non-compliance and had strengthened prevention measures. The declaration forms are required to show that centres have complied with the subject content requirements. The exam board admitted it had failed to make the relevant staff aware of the requirements related to the declaration forms. Affected qualifications include GCSE drama, AS and A Level drama and theatre, GCSE geography, and GCSE computer science. ‘No evidence for adverse effect on learners’ Chief regulator Ian Bauckham said the rebuke “demonstrates our commitment to taking action to protect students and uphold public confidence in qualifications”. He added: “It enables us to hold an awarding organisation to account publicly for serious failings when a fine is not warranted. “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.” Ofqual acknowledged that WJEC had “taken steps to rectify its processes and prevent reoccurrence”, but the failures” undermined essential assurance mechanisms”. It added the rebuke serves as a “formal expression” of concern and sets an expectation for WJEC to ensure it has “a strong regulatory compliance culture, systems and oversight to prevent similar incidents recurring in the future”. A spokesperson from WJEC said that the instances “affected a small number of subjects” and they were “confident that there is no evidence to indicate any actual adverse effects on learners”. They added: “However, 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 accounts for 7.1 per cent of GCSE exams and 6.2 per cent of A Level exams in 2024-25.