Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether Ministers had discussions with Pearson Education Limited before 1 July 2026 regarding risks to the publication timetable for SATs results.

Pearson Education Limited was awarded the contract to deliver key stage 2 tests on behalf of the Standards and Testing Agency in April 2024, following an open procurement process in line with the relevant legal procurement regulations and commercial requirements. The contract term was four years and had an initial value of £85 million. This was later reduced to £79 million as activity relating to optional key stage 1 tests was descoped.

Pearson informed the government on 1 July 2026 that they were not ready to upload results to the online portal for schools, and they needed additional time to ensure the system was ready for schools to access. Pearson has fully apologised for failing to return results on time and for the impact on schools, pupils and parents. Ministers have been closely involved in monitoring the situation with Pearson since we first became aware of problems with Modmark, Pearson's online marking platform.

We will use all available contractual provisions to hold Pearson to account and are considering all options for future delivery. An independent review, led by Dame Christine Gilbert, has been launched into how such serious failures occurred and is expected to report to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, in October 2026.