Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides on the applicability of Normal Way of Working as a criterion for use of a computer for (a) GCSE and (b) A Level, for pupils who do not have a related physical disability or learning difficulty.

The department does not issue guidance on access arrangements for GCSE, AS or A level examinations. Guidance for access arrangements is set by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which is the membership organisation for the eight largest awarding bodies.

JCQ’s Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments guidance sets out that centres can provide a word processor, with the spelling and grammar check and predictive text switched off, to a candidate where it is their normal way of working within the centre, unless an awarding body’s specification says otherwise.

The guidance makes clear that access arrangements are intended to meet an individual candidate’s needs, and must not be granted solely on the basis of preference or familiarity.