In October, Ofqual awarded itself new powers to publicly “rebuke” awarding bodies for offences not serious enough to warrant a financial penalty, such as simple cases of misconduct or malpractice.  

These new powers align with additional requirements that awarding bodies act with “honesty and integrity” and “promote public confidence in qualifications.”  

In November at the FAB 2025: Conference & Exhibition, Sir Ian Baukham, the Chief Regulator of Ofqual, led a talk on regulatory priorities.  He emphasised the critical role both regulators and awarding bodies play, noting: “If we get it wrong, we run the risk of actually doing harm.”  At the same time, he acknowledged the complexity of the regulatory landscape and highlighted the need to provide awarding bodies with greater clarity and guidance. 

As highlighted by Ian Baukham, failing to navigate this complex regulatory landscape can cause real harm to candidates.  To stay ahead of these changes, awarding bodies need to remain adaptable and responsive to new requirements.  Partnering with trusted third parties can play a key role in this, as it allows organisations to draw on specialist expertise that supports compliance, and helps maintain public confidence in their qualifications.

The Challenge for Awarding Bodies 

Awarding bodies face a number of challenges in maintaining regulatory compliance.  Updates to key regulatory conditions — such as the rules organisations must meet to retain their recognised status, as well as changes to exam security or reporting requirements — can happen quickly.  As a result, processes that were compliant last year, or even last month, may now need to be reviewed or completely overhauled. 

In addition, regulators increasingly expect awarding bodies not only to comply in principle, but to provide clear evidence of compliance in practice.  This involves robust internal oversight, consistent staff training, detailed documentation, and reliable monitoring systems.  For many organisations, particularly smaller awarding bodies, these demands place significant operational strain on teams already managing jobs like qualification design, centre support, and candidate services. 

A recent example illustrates this clearly: from December 2025, all awarding organisations must comply with the newly introduced ‘Principles Condition’, which requires constant demonstration of honesty, integrity, fairness and transparency, rather than one‑off compliance checks.   Awarding bodies without streamlined reporting processes may struggle to meet this requirement consistently.

How Trusted Third Parties Support Regulatory Compliance 

Maintaining regulatory compliance can be tough for awarding bodies, especially when it comes to secure exam delivery.  Partnering with trusted assessment providers and established exam centre networks can play a key role in ensuring academic integrity.  This is because third parties can bring specialist knowledge in areas such as invigilation best practices, secure handling of assessment materials, and detecting malpractice.  They also stay up to date with the latest regulatory guidance, helping awarding bodies ensure their processes meet current standards. 

At VICTVS, our global network of over 5,000 expert invigilators and exam centre staff undergo rigorous training — both during onboarding and throughout their time with us — to uphold the highest standards in exam delivery.  Our teams are skilled in monitoring exams accurately (both online and in person), supporting candidate best practice, and systematically reporting any suspected malpractice.  Clear and detailed reports are provided to awarding bodies, giving them full visibility over assessment delivery and ensuring accurate oversight and record-keeping. 

Our in-person and remote invigilation services across the globe provide reliable, secure, and consistent exam experiences, helping awarding bodies demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements.  The comprehensive records we maintain — covering attendance, exam activity, and any incidents — serve as concrete evidence during regulatory inspections, reducing risk and providing reassurance to awarding bodies.  We also perform our own exam-centre inspections to make sure the services and centres we provide consistently meet a high standard.

Importantly, we also continually monitor changes in regulatory guidance and refine our policies, training, and reporting tools to ensure that all services we provide remain fully aligned with current requirements. 

Beyond these direct compliance benefits, working with a global organisation like VICTVS also brings additional operational advantages.  Awarding bodies gain access to deep regional expertise, purpose-built booking and scheduling systems, and in-house technology designed to support assessment delivery at scale — all of which strengthen resilience and reduce administrative strain.

Benefits for Awarding Bodies 

By leveraging the expertise of third parties such as VICTVS, awarding bodies can: 

• Deliver assessments that meet regulatory standards.
• Reduce the risk of rebukes or financial penalties.
• Maintain transparent processes that build public trust in qualifications.
• Streamline administrative workloads, freeing teams to focus on core assessment design and candidate support. 

Next Steps 

Regulatory compliance will always be a shifting landscape for awarding bodies.  As Ofqual continues to refine expectations and introduce new powers, organisations must not only keep pace with these developments but also demonstrate that their processes are robust, transparent, and fair to all candidates.

This can place significant pressure on internal teams — particularly when demands for evidence, documentation, and oversight continue to increase.  Working with specialist partners can ease this burden by providing additional expertise, clearer visibility over assessment delivery, and confidence that new requirements are being met consistently and accurately.

If you’d like to explore how external support could strengthen your organisation’s approach to compliance, we’d be happy to discuss bespoke assessment solutions with you.  Contact us here to find out more.