GCSE English Lit/Lang exam results 2012 - grade boundaries

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Education,

Relating to my FoI request to OfQual at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gc... and the subsequent information disclosed, I am making a request to you under the Freedom of Information Act.

Please can you release all information relating to the setting of GCSE grade boundaries by OfQual. In particular please could you release any correspondence between ministers, their private offices & policy teams with OfQual regarding the setting of grade boundaries for the 2012 exams, dated between September 2011 and September 2012.

Please could you also release any information originating from those dates that contains (but is not limited to) an order, direction, opinion or view of ministers or civil servants acting on behalf of ministers, to OfQual and/or the examination boards directly.

Yours faithfully,

Antony Carpen

Department for Education

Dear Mr Carpen

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2012/0064412.

Regards
Department for Education

Web: www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

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Department for Education

Dear Mr Carpen,
Thank you for your request for information dated 28 September 2012.
You requested the Department to: release all information relating to the
setting of GCSE grade boundaries by OfQual.  In particular, the release of
any correspondence between ministers, their private offices & policy teams
with OfQual regarding the setting of grade boundaries for the 2012 exams,
dated between September 2011 and September 2012. 

You also asked for the release of any information originating from those
dates that contains (but is not limited to) an order, direction, opinion
or view of ministers or civil servants acting on behalf of ministers, to
OfQual and/or the examination boards directly.

We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000. The information is currently being collated but is taking longer
than anticipated.  We will respond to your request by 9 November 2012.

We sincerely apologise for the delay and any inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number below in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.   

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. 
Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2012/0064412. If
you need to respond to us, please visit [1]www.education.gov.uk/contactus,
and quote your reference number.

Yours sincerely,

Beverley Swaby
Qualifications Systems & Reform Division
Floor 6, 2 St Paul’s Place
125 Norfolk Street
Sheffield
S1 4FJ

Tel: 0114 2742493
Website: [2]www.education.gov.uk
Email: [3][email address]

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Department for Education

1 Attachment

Mr Antony Carpen,

 

In response to your FOI request we are compiling all the relevant
documents for release. As you can imagine the number of documents is very
large, would you be able to provide us with your postal address so we can
send you a hard copy pack?

 

Regards, Hannah Powell

 

[1]Description: cid:image002.jpg@01CD11A1.A0B95600

Message-----
From: Antony Carpen [[2]mailto:[FOI #131426 email]]
Sent: 28 September 2012 23:31
To: ACCOUNT, Unmonitored
Subject: Freedom of Information request - GCSE English Lit/Lang exam
results 2012 - grade boundaries - please log to Qual system reform **circ
to Cathy Roberts - 01/10 @ 11:30**

 

     Dear Department for Education,
    
     Relating to my FoI request to OfQual at
    
[3]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gc...
     and the subsequent information disclosed, I am making a request to
     you under the Freedom of Information Act.
    
     Please can you release all information relating to the setting of
     GCSE grade boundaries by OfQual. In particular please could you
     release any correspondence between ministers, their private offices
     & policy teams with OfQual regarding the setting of grade
     boundaries for the 2012 exams, dated between September 2011 and
     September 2012.
    
     Please could you also release any information originating from
     those dates that contains (but is not limited to) an order,
     direction, opinion or view of ministers or civil servants acting on
     behalf of ministers, to OfQual and/or the examination boards
     directly.
    
     Yours faithfully,
    
     Antony Carpen
    
     -------------------------------------------------------------------
    
     Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
     [FOI #131426 email]
    
     Is [DfE request email] the wrong address for Freedom of
     Information requests to Department for Education? If so, please
     contact us using this form:
     [4]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/contact
    
     Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
     published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
     [5]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offic...
    
     If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your
     web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
    
    
    

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Hello Hannah

Many thanks for your reply

I'd be grateful for transparency's sake and so as to enable others to examine the documents that the Department scans the documents so as to enable whatdotheyknow.com to display them on their website.

Given the nature of the issue and information I submitted the FoI request, I believe there is a strong public interest in the documents being made available. Alternatively you are more than welcome to publish the documents on the DfE website

With kind regards

Antony Carpen

Department for Education

Hello Antony,

Thank you for your response. We will send the documents electronically as requested, but just to pre-warn that the attachments are quite large - it is possible that they may come to you over two emails.

Many thanks, Hannah

Hannah Powell

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Hello Hannah,

Please could you let me know when you've emailed the information due for release - a couple of people have been in touch interested in their content.

With kind regards

Antony Carpen

Department for Education

Hello Antony,

Apologies for the delay in replying. I can confirm that the information has not yet been sent - but we will contact you to notify let you know when they are released.

Many thanks, Hannah

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Laura McInerney left an annotation ()

For Info - Ofqual have published this information on their website: http://www2.ofqual.gov.uk/downloads/cate...

Laura McInerney left an annotation ()

Wait - no - that's still the same information as previously. When *will* this information be sent then? It is now significantly over the due date.

Department for Education

6 Attachments

Dear Mr Carpen,
  

 
Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 1 October 2012.  I
apologise for the delay in responding to you.

You requested the Department release all information relating to the setting of GCSE grade
boundaries by Ofqual.  In particular, you asked for the release of any correspondence
between Ministers, their private offices and policy teams with Ofqual regarding the setting
of grade boundaries for the 2012 exams, dated between September 2011 and September 2012.   

You also asked for the release of any information originating from those dates that contains
(but is not limited to) an order, direction, opinion or view of ministers or civil servants
acting on behalf of ministers, to Ofqual and/or examination boards directly.

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”).   

On the basis of my interpretation of your request, I have commissioned searches for
information relating to the setting of 2012 GCSE grade boundaries between a) Ofqual and b)
awarding organisations, and the following teams/offices at the Department:

- Secretary of State’s Private Office
- Schools’ Minister’s Private Office
- Director of Curriculum and General Qualifications and Reform
- Deputy Director and Team leaders in the Qualifications Systems and Reform Division
(responsible for current GCSE policy and Ofqual relations).

A copy of the information which can be disclosed will be sent to you over multiple emails
due to the quantity and size of the documents. 
 
We are unable to release the names of staff below Senior Civil Servants, under section
40(2) of the Act, as staff at grades below the SCS and who do not have a public-facing role,
are exempt from disclosure on the grounds that release of the information would breach one
of more of the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. This exemption is 'absolute' in
these circumstances, which means that it is not necessary for the Department to run a test
to balance the public interest in release against that in withholding the information.   

The Department holds the remainder of the information you requested, but it is being
withheld because the following exemption applies to this information:

Section 36 of the Act – Prejudice to Effective Conduct of Public Affairs.  
It was considered that disclosure of the information would be likely to inhibit the free and
frank provision of advice or exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation.  In
addition, it would be likely otherwise to prejudice the effective conduct of public
affairs. 

A public interest test has been performed and it has been determined that there needs to be
space within which Ministers and officials are able to seek sensitive information and
discuss policy options and delivery, freely and frankly.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright. You are free to use
it for your own purposes, including for private study and non-commercial research, and for
any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law. Documents (except
photographs) can be also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of
news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the
permission of the copyright holder.

Most documents produced by the Department for Education will be protected by Crown
Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be re-used under the Open Government Licence
([1]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...). For information about
the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information please see The National Archives
website
-[2]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
.  

Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information about obtaining
permission from a third party see the Intellectual Property Office’s website at
[3]www.ipo.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the
reference number below in any future communications. 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint
to the Department by writing to me within two calendar months of the date of this letter. 
Your complaint will be considered by an independent review panel, who were not involved in
the original consideration of your request. 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the Department, you may then
contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2012/0064412. If you need to respond
to us, please visit [4]www.education.gov.uk/contactus, and quote your reference number.
Yours sincerely,

Beverley Swaby
Qualifications Systems & Reform Division
Floor 6, 2 St Paul’s Place
125 Norfolk Street
Sheffield
S1 4FJ

Tel: 0114 2742493 (internal x242493)
Email: [email address]

[5]www.education.gov.uk

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Department for Education

13 Attachments

Dear Mr Carpen

 

As per my previous email, this is email 2 of 4 emails in total.  
 

Yours sincerely

Beverley Swaby
Qualifications Systems & Reform Division
Floor 6, 2 St Paul’s Place
125 Norfolk Street

Sheffield

S1 4FJ

Tel: 0114 2742493
Email: [email address]

[1]www.education.gov.uk

[2]Description:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/system/style/new/...

 

Please note that I work part-time and do not work Mondays or Fridays

 

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Department for Education

14 Attachments

Email 3 of 4.

 

Bev

............................................................................................................................

Bev Swaby

Qualifications Systems & Reform Division

Floor 6, 2 St Paul’s Place
125 Norfolk Street

Sheffield

S1 4FJ

Tel: 0114 2742493 (internal x242493)
[1]www.education.gov.uk

 

Please note that I work part-time and do not work Mondays or Fridays

 

[2]Description: Description: Description:
cid:image002.jpg@01CD11A5.DE981FC0

 

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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References

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http://www.education.gov.uk/

Department for Education

8 Attachments

Email 4 of 4.

 

Bev

............................................................................................................................

Bev Swaby

Qualifications Systems & Reform Division

Floor 6, 2 St Paul’s Place
125 Norfolk Street

Sheffield

S1 4FJ

Tel: 0114 2742493 (internal x242493)
[1]www.education.gov.uk

 

Please note that I work part-time and do not work Mondays or Fridays

 

[2]Description: Description: Description:
cid:image002.jpg@01CD11A5.DE981FC0

 

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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References

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