Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason his Department has postponed the publication of the Revised information on A level and other results for 16 to 18 year-olds, including data by student characteristics statistical release for 2019-20.

The statistical release ‘A level and other 16 to 18 results: 2019 to 2020 (revised)’ has been cancelled rather than postponed.

In a normal publication cycle, a provisional statistical release is updated in January with revised data. The revision incorporates the results of a process whereby schools and colleges check their data.

In a statement made on 26 March 2020, the Department clarified what the impact would be on school and college accountability in 2019 to 2020 of the earlier announcement that exams in schools and colleges in England in summer 2020 were cancelled and that it will not publish any school or college level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exam for 2020: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-school-and-college-performance-measures/coronavirus-covid-19-school-and-college-accountability.

The cancellation of the revised statistical release is a consequence of the cancellation of the 16 to 18 school and college checking exercise.

Given the cancellation of the revised statistical release, the content of the provisional statistical release published on 26 November 2020 was broader than usual, including breakdowns of data by student characteristics normally published in January, and regional and local authority geographies. It is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results-2019-to-2020-provisional.