Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what concerns were brought to the attention of the Home Office following the unannounced audit visits to Synergy College in May 2012 and January 2013; and what steps he has taken in response to these concerns.

Under the terms of the licence agreement in place at the time it was the responsibility of the test provider to ensure that tests were delivered in a secure environment. Following the discovery of widespread fraud in 2015 new, strengthened arrangements for Secure English Language Testing (SELT) were introduced.

These arrangements included a reduction in the number of providers approved to deliver SELT, a reduction in the number of test centres and a requirement that these test centres are run directly by the provider rather than sub-contracted to other private organisations. Security requirements were also improved – test centres are required to video all test sessions and the Home Office now directly audits test centres both in the UK and overseas. The scheduling of these audits is based on volume and risk.