Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) sanctions and (b) penalties his Department can issue to people that leak exam papers online.

The Department is not generally responsible for issuing sanctions to those involved in exam malpractice, which will be a decision for the individual exam board following guidance from the Joint Council for Qualifications, a membership body representing the main GCSE and A level exam boards. Where there is an indication of criminal activity the boards will involve the police.

An exception to this is when the individual involved in the breach of security is a teacher. In this case, the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), on behalf of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, may investigate allegations of serious misconduct that are referred to it, and can decide to prohibit the individual from carrying out teaching work. Prohibition from teaching has a lifetime effect, but in some circumstances an application to have the prohibition set aside may be allowed after a specified period of time of no less than two years. Where a school dismisses a teacher for serious misconduct, or may have referred had the teacher not resigned, they have a duty to consider referring the matter to the TRA.