DfE and Ofqual discussions regarding the A-Level algorithm

This request has been withdrawn by the person who made it. There may be an explanation in the correspondence below.

Dear Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation,

Please could you release the following:

1. Any emails between the DfE (including Ministers, special advisors or civil servants) and Ofqual discussing what has become commonly known as "the A-Level results algorithm".
2. The dates of any telephone calls between the DfE (including Ministers, special advisors or civil servants) and Ofqual to discuss what has become commonly known as "the A-Level results algorithm", including any details of what was discussed where possible.
3. The dates of any meetings between the DfE (including Ministers, special advisors or civil servants) and Ofqual to discuss what has become commonly known as "the A-Level results algorithm", including any meetings or notes taken at the meetings where possible.

Yours faithfully,

Lawrence Weetman

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Dear Mr Weetman

Thank you for your request, made under the Freedom of information Act 2000 (the Act). We will deal with your request in line with the Act.

Please note that due to Covid-19 we might not be able to respond within statutory timelines. We will respond as soon as we can.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information Team
Ofqual

• Office: 0300 303 3344
• Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

show quoted sections

Your information

In order to provide you with a response to your email, Ofqual will process any personal data contained in your email in line with our statutory and regulatory duties and data protection legislation.

We will, as far as possible, maintain your confidentiality and anonymity, if you have requested us to do so. However, it may be necessary to share your personal data in order to process your enquiry and provide you with a full response, and sometimes we may need to share your correspondence with colleagues in Ofqual, with other government departments or with Awarding Organisations.

Please be aware that if you exercise your right to remain anonymous, we may not be able to reply fully to your correspondence.

If you believe that Ofqual has not complied with your data protection rights, please contact Ofqual’s Data Protection Officer [email address] in the first instance. You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk/ or telephone 0303 123 1113.

For further information about how Ofqual processes personal data, please visit our Personal Information Charter page.

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Dear Ofqual FOI,

For the avoidance of doubt - I would like to clarify that I intended for any communication between Ofqual and DfE Ministers to be included in the scope of my request.

Yours sincerely,

Lawrence Weetman

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Dear Mr Weetman,
Thank you for your request, made under the Freedom of information Act 2000
(the Act). We will deal with your request in line with the Act.
 
Please note that due to Covid-19 we might not be able to respond within
statutory timelines. We will respond as soon as we can.
 
Kind regards,
 
 
Freedom of Information Team, Ofqual
Until further notice, do not send any correspondence to the Ofqual
Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
• Office: 0300 303 3344
• Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

[1]Ofqual on GOV.UK • [2]Blog • [3]Twitter • [4]YouTube • [5]LinkedIn
 

This message may contain confidential information.
If you have received this message by mistake,
please inform the sender by sending an e-mail
reply. At the same time please delete the message
and any attachments from your system without
making, distributing or retaining any copies.
Although all of our e-mail messages and attachments
are automatically virus scanned, we assume no
responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the receipt or use of this message.

 
Your information
 
In order to provide you with a response to your email, Ofqual will process
any personal data contained in your email in line with our statutory and
regulatory duties and data protection legislation.
 
We will, as far as possible, maintain your confidentiality and anonymity,
if you have requested us to do so. However, it may be necessary to share
your personal data in order to process your enquiry and provide you with a
full response, and sometimes we may need to share your correspondence with
colleagues in Ofqual, with other government departments or with Awarding
Organisations.
 
Please be aware that if you exercise your right to remain anonymous, we
may not be able to reply fully to your correspondence.
 
If you believe that Ofqual has not complied with your data protection
rights, please contact Ofqual’s Data Protection Officer
[email address] in the first instance. You can also contact the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at [6]https://ico.org.uk/ or
telephone 0303 123 1113.
 
For further information about how Ofqual processes personal data, please
visit our Personal Information Charter page.
 

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Dear Ofqual FOI,

I note that the usual statutory deadline for a response has passed, yet I have not received a response. I am aware that the ICO has relaxed the rules on the length of time organisations have to fulfil FOI requests, but it is obviously still in the public interest for public bodies to respond as quickly as possible to requests for information and to attempt to comply with the usual deadlines.

Please could you give me an update as to when I might receive a response?

Yours sincerely,

Lawrence Weetman

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Thank you for your request, made under the Freedom of information Act 2000
(the Act). We will deal with your request in line with the Act.

 

Please note that due to Covid-19 we might not be able to respond within
statutory timelines. We will respond as soon as we can.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Freedom of Information Team, Ofqual

• Until further notice, do not send any correspondence to the Ofqual
Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

 

Your information

 

In order to provide you with a response to your email, Ofqual will process
any personal data contained in your email in line with our statutory and
regulatory duties and data protection legislation.

 

We will, as far as possible, maintain your confidentiality and anonymity,
if you have requested us to do so. However, it may be necessary to share
your personal data in order to process your enquiry and provide you with a
full response, and sometimes we may need to share your correspondence with
colleagues in Ofqual, with other government departments or with Awarding
Organisations.

 

Please be aware that if you exercise your right to remain anonymous, we
may not be able to reply fully to your correspondence.

 

If you believe that Ofqual has not complied with your data protection
rights, please contact Ofqual’s Data Protection Officer
[1][email address] in the first instance. You can also contact
the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at [2]https://ico.org.uk/ or
telephone 0303 123 1113.

 

For further information about how Ofqual processes personal data, please
visit our [3]Personal Information Charter page.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://ico.org.uk/
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Dear Mr Weetman,
 
Thank you for your request, made under the Freedom of information Act 2000
(the Act).
 
We have received a large number of Freedom of Information requests over
the last few weeks. The volume of requests received means that we might
not be able to respond to your request within statutory timelines. 
 
We apologise in advance for any delay.
 
Please be assured that we will try to process your request as quickly as
possible, and we are working very hard to respond to Freedom of
Information requests in line with the Act.
 
Kind regards,
 
 
Freedom of Information Team, Ofqual
• Until further notice, do not send any correspondence to the Ofqual
Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH
 
Your information
 
In order to provide you with a response to your email, Ofqual will process
any personal data contained in your email in line with our statutory and
regulatory duties and data protection legislation.
 
We will, as far as possible, maintain your confidentiality and anonymity,
if you have requested us to do so. However, it may be necessary to share
your personal data in order to process your enquiry and provide you with a
full response, and sometimes we may need to share your correspondence with
colleagues in Ofqual, with other government departments or with Awarding
Organisations.
 
Please be aware that if you exercise your right to remain anonymous, we
may not be able to reply fully to your correspondence.
 
If you believe that Ofqual has not complied with your data protection
rights, please contact Ofqual’s Data Protection Officer
[1][email address] in the first instance. You can also contact
the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at [2]https://ico.org.uk/ or
telephone 0303 123 1113.
 
For further information about how Ofqual processes personal data, please
visit our [3]Personal Information Charter page.
 
 
 
 

show quoted sections

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Weetman,

 

I refer to your request for information, made under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act). 

 

Under the Act, public authorities have two duties to individuals
requesting information: firstly, to confirm whether or not they hold the
information requested, and secondly to provide a copy of that information
unless one or more of the exemptions under the Act apply.

 

Your request

 

Please could you release the following:

 

 1. Any emails between the DfE (including Ministers, special advisors or
civil servants) and Ofqual discussing what has become commonly known
as "the A-Level results algorithm"
 2. The dates of any telephone calls between the DfE (including Ministers,
special advisors or civil servants) and Ofqual to discuss what has
become commonly known as "the A-Level results algorithm", including
any details of what was discussed where possible.
 3. The dates of any meetings between the DfE (including Ministers,
special advisors or civil servants) and Ofqual to discuss what has
become commonly known as "the A-Level results algorithm", including
any meetings or notes taken at the meetings where possible.

For the avoidance of doubt - I would like to clarify that I intended for
any communication between Ofqual and DfE Ministers to be included in the
scope of my request.

 

Our response

 

Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse
requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed
the appropriate limit, which for Ofqual is set at £600. This represents
the estimated cost of one person spending 24 hours in determining whether
Ofqual holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the
information.

 

If a request is too broad or general in nature, then public authorities
have a duty under Section 16 of the Act to provide advice and assistance
to the applicant in order to help them refine, narrow or revise their
request.  

 

Ofqual has examined your request and can confirm that we have identified a
large volume of emails and other information that may fall within the
scope of your request. However we estimate that it will take in excess of
24 hours to deal with your request because of the large volume and the
time it will take to consider the information. If you wish to consider
narrowing your request for specific information that you require or in
relation to specific dates, please let me know.

To be helpful, we have included an attached document entitled ‘Ofqual
meetings attended by DfE’ which lists all Ofqual meetings that were
attended by a Department for Education representative/observer between
March 18 2020 and August 13 2020. These are listed in date order and
include a brief description of each meeting. Please note that Ofqual does
not hold notes of meetings between Ofqual and ministers.

You may also be interested to know that we have published the following
documents which you may find helpful.

o Awarding GCSE, AS & A levels in summer 2020: interim report:
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
o Consultation on Exceptional arrangements for assessment and grading
2020
[2]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

 

Possible other exemptions

 

As you will appreciate from our explanation above, the application of
section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 enables a public
authority to refuse to comply with an information request. Because we have
applied section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000 we have not considered
whether exemptions contained within the Freedom of Information Act 2000
may be engaged by your request. Please keep in mind that should you choose
to submit a revised request we may have to consider whether any exemptions
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 might apply to that revised
request. We raise this point purely in the interests of transparency so
that you are aware.

 

Internal review  

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been handled you
have the right to request an internal review. You can request an internal
review by contacting: 

 

Naik Sandhu 

Legal Practice Manager, Ofqual  

Earlsdon Park 

53-55 Butts Road 

Coventry, CV1 3BH 

([3][email address]).  

 

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you can
apply to the Information Commissioner. Complaints to the Information
Commissioner should be sent to: 

 

FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution  

Information Commissioner’s Office  

Wycliffe House  

Water Lane  

Wilmslow  

Cheshire, SK9 5AF  

 

Yours sincerely, 

 

 

 

Freedom of Information Team, Ofqual

Until further notice, do not send any correspondence to the Ofqual
Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.

• Office: 0300 303 3344

• Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

[4]Ofqual on GOV.UK • [5]Blog • [6]Twitter • [7]YouTube • [8]LinkedIn
 

This message may contain confidential information. If you have received
this message by mistake, please inform the sender by sending an e-mail
reply. At the same time please delete the message and any attachments from
your system without making, distributing or retaining any copies. Although
all of our e-mail messages and attachments are automatically virus
scanned, we assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the receipt or use of this message.

 

 

Your information

 

In order to provide you with a response to your email, Ofqual will process
any personal data contained in your email in line with our statutory and
regulatory duties and data protection legislation.

 

We will, as far as possible, maintain your confidentiality and anonymity,
if you have requested us to do so. However, it may be necessary to share
your personal data in order to process your enquiry and provide you with a
full response, and sometimes we may need to share your correspondence with
colleagues in Ofqual, with other government departments or with Awarding
Organisations.

 

Please be aware that if you exercise your right to remain anonymous, we
may not be able to reply fully to your correspondence.

 

If you believe that Ofqual has not complied with your data protection
rights, please contact Ofqual’s Data Protection Officer
[9][email address] in the first instance. You can also contact
the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at [10]https://ico.org.uk/ or
telephone 0303 123 1113.

 

For further information about how Ofqual processes personal data, please
visit our [11]Personal Information Charter page.

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear Ofqual FOI,

Thank you for your email.

I would like to narrow my request down to communications between DfE Ministers and Ofqual from March 9th to the date of my initial request.

If this is still too broad in scope to be dealt with under the FOI regime, then please consider the scope to be communications between DfE Ministers and the Chair or Chief Executive of Ofqual for the same period.

Yours sincerely,

Lawrence Weetman

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Thank you for your request, made under the Freedom of information Act 2000
(the Act). We will deal with your request in line with the Act.

 

Please note that due to Covid-19 we might not be able to respond within
statutory timelines. We will respond as soon as we can.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Freedom of Information Team, Ofqual

• Until further notice, do not send any correspondence to the Ofqual
Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

 

Your information

 

In order to provide you with a response to your email, Ofqual will process
any personal data contained in your email in line with our statutory and
regulatory duties and data protection legislation.

 

We will, as far as possible, maintain your confidentiality and anonymity,
if you have requested us to do so. However, it may be necessary to share
your personal data in order to process your enquiry and provide you with a
full response, and sometimes we may need to share your correspondence with
colleagues in Ofqual, with other government departments or with Awarding
Organisations.

 

Please be aware that if you exercise your right to remain anonymous, we
may not be able to reply fully to your correspondence.

 

If you believe that Ofqual has not complied with your data protection
rights, please contact Ofqual’s Data Protection Officer
[1][email address] in the first instance. You can also contact
the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at [2]https://ico.org.uk/ or
telephone 0303 123 1113.

 

For further information about how Ofqual processes personal data, please
visit our [3]Personal Information Charter page.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://ico.org.uk/
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Dear Mr Weetman

 

Thank you for your email, for which I acknowledge safe receipt.

 

I am writing to confirm that your revised request will be treated as a new
Freedom of Information request, and has been our reference number
FOI2021296.

 

Your request 

You have asked Ofqual to provide you with the following information:

 

 1. Any correspondence between DfE Ministers and Ofqual, discussing the
algorithm used to determine 2020 exam grades; and
 2. If the request in Point 1) above is too broad in nature, you have
requested copies of any correspondence between DfE Ministers and the
Chair or Chief Executive of Ofqual discussing the algorithm used to
determine 2020 exam grades.

 

You have asked that the correspondence referred to in 1) and 2) above
should fall within the date range of 09 March 2020 and 18 August 2020.

 

Our response 

We have searched our records and I can confirm that Ofqual
holds some information of the type that you have requested. 

 

Exemption

 

Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse
requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed
the appropriate limit, which for Ofqual is set at £600. This represents
the estimated cost of one person spending 24 hours in determining whether
Ofqual holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the
information.

 

If a request is too broad or general in nature, then public authorities
have a duty under Section 16 of the Act to provide advice and assistance
to the applicant in order to help them refine, narrow or revise their
request.  

 

We hope you will understand that there has been a great deal of
correspondence between Ofqual, and other parties in respect of the
arrangements in place following the cancellation of exams this year.
Ofqual has examined your request and can confirm that we have identified a
large volume of emails (approximately 9,400) between Ofqual and DfE during
the period covered by your request. In order to determine which of those
emails definitively fall within the scope or your request, we would need
to manually review each of those items individually.  We estimate that it
will take in excess of 24 hours to deal with your request because of the
large volume identified by our initial search and the time it will take to
consider and locate the information you seek.

 

We must therefore decline to provide the information that you seek under
Part 1) of your request above.

 

 

Part 2 of your request

 

We now intend to carry out a search of our IT records in line with Part 2)
of your request above. 

 

By “algorithm”, we have taken this to refer to the standardisation model
employed for the grading of the Summer 2020 A level examinations. As
Ofqual usually uses the terminology “standardisation model” in
correspondence and documents, we intend to conduct a search of our email
records, using the keywords “algorithm”, “standardisation” and “model”. 
This is in the interest of ensuring that we identify all relevant items
which meet your request.  However, if you object to us using these
keywords in our search, please let me know as quickly as possible and we
will carry out a broader search without the use of these keywords
(although this would likely result in a higher number of items identified
for Ofqual to sift manually).

 

We will write to you again once our initial search and subsequent manual
sifting of the records is complete.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Bridget Makepeace
Senior Officer Compliance, Ofqual

 

• Switchboard:  0300 303 3344

Until further notice, please do not send any postal correspondence to the
Ofqual Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

[1]Ofqual on GOV.UK • [2]Blog • [3]Twitter • [4]YouTube • [5]LinkedIn
 

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this message by mistake, please inform the sender by sending an e-mail
reply. At the same time please delete the message and any attachments from
your system without making, distributing or retaining any copies. Although
all of our e-mail messages and attachments are automatically virus
scanned, we assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the receipt or use of this message.

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Dear Mr Weetman

 

Freedom of Information request

Our reference: FOI2021296

 

Further to previous correspondence, I am writing to clarify your Freedom
of Information request to Ofqual.  This is because your request builds
upon information that you have previously requested of us under the
Freedom of Information Act and I want to be certain that we have
understood your request completely before responding.

 

You have asked Ofqual to provide you with communications between DfE
Ministers and the Chair or Chief Executive of Ofqual for the period 9^th
March to 18^th August 2020 inclusive.

 

Having reviewed your previous requests for information, I note that they
related to requests for sight of emails discussing the standardisation
model (“algorithm”) used for awarding grades in Summer 2020.

 

I would be grateful if you could please respond to the following
questions, so that I am certain that we have correctly understood your
most recent request:

 

 1. Does your most recent request (above) relate to communications in
which the standardisation model is discussed, or are you asking for
all general correspondence?

 

 2. Are you requesting only correspondence with Ministers, or with all DfE
staff?

 

I do want to make sure that we are correctly targeting our search for
emails, so I hope you don’t mind me clarifying this with you.  I would be
grateful if you could please provide the above clarification by return of
email.

 

Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Bridget Makepeace
Senior Officer Compliance, Ofqual

 

• Switchboard:  0300 303 3344
• Until further notice, do not send any correspondence to the Ofqual
Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

[1]Ofqual on GOV.UK • [2]Blog • [3]Twitter • [4]YouTube • [5]LinkedIn
 

This message may contain confidential information. If you have received
this message by mistake, please inform the sender by sending an e-mail
reply. At the same time please delete the message and any attachments from
your system without making, distributing or retaining any copies. Although
all of our e-mail messages and attachments are automatically virus
scanned, we assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the receipt or use of this message.

 

References

Visible links
1. http://gov.uk/ofqual
2. http://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/
3. http://twitter.com/ofqual
4. http://youtube.com/ofqual
5. http://linkedin.com/company/ofqual

Ofqual FOI, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation

Dear Mr Weetman

 

Freedom of Information request

Our reference: FOI2021296

 

We wrote to you by email on 09 December 2020 (copy attached below) and we
note that we have not yet received a reply from you.

 

We would be grateful if you could please provide the clarification that we
have requested as, without this, we may not be able to respond to your
request.  If you could reply in the next 3 days, that would be much
appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance and we look forward to hearing from you further.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Bridget Makepeace
Senior Officer Compliance, Ofqual

 

• Switchboard:  0300 303 3344

Until further notice, please do not send any postal correspondence to the
Ofqual Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

[1]Ofqual on GOV.UK • [2]Blog • [3]Twitter • [4]YouTube • [5]LinkedIn
 

This message may contain confidential information. If you have received
this message by mistake, please inform the sender by sending an e-mail
reply. At the same time please delete the message and any attachments from
your system without making, distributing or retaining any copies. Although
all of our e-mail messages and attachments are automatically virus
scanned, we assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the receipt or use of this message.

 

 

From: Ofqual FOI
Sent: 09 December 2020 15:07
To: [FOI #685469 email]
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Ofqual

 

Dear Mr Weetman

 

Freedom of Information request

Our reference: FOI2021296

 

Further to previous correspondence, I am writing to clarify your Freedom
of Information request to Ofqual.  This is because your request builds
upon information that you have previously requested of us under the
Freedom of Information Act and I want to be certain that we have
understood your request completely before responding.

 

You have asked Ofqual to provide you with communications between DfE
Ministers and the Chair or Chief Executive of Ofqual for the period 9^th
March to 18^th August 2020 inclusive.

 

Having reviewed your previous requests for information, I note that they
related to requests for sight of emails discussing the standardisation
model (“algorithm”) used for awarding grades in Summer 2020.

 

I would be grateful if you could please respond to the following
questions, so that I am certain that we have correctly understood your
most recent request:

 

 1. Does your most recent request (above) relate to communications in
which the standardisation model is discussed, or are you asking for
all general correspondence?

 

 2. Are you requesting only correspondence with Ministers, or with all DfE
staff?

 

I do want to make sure that we are correctly targeting our search for
emails, so I hope you don’t mind me clarifying this with you.  I would be
grateful if you could please provide the above clarification by return of
email.

 

Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Bridget Makepeace
Senior Officer Compliance, Ofqual

 

• Switchboard:  0300 303 3344
• Until further notice, do not send any correspondence to the Ofqual
Earlsdon Park office, which is closed due to the current COVID-19
situation.
Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH

[6]Ofqual on GOV.UK • [7]Blog • [8]Twitter • [9]YouTube • [10]LinkedIn
 

This message may contain confidential information. If you have received
this message by mistake, please inform the sender by sending an e-mail
reply. At the same time please delete the message and any attachments from
your system without making, distributing or retaining any copies. Although
all of our e-mail messages and attachments are automatically virus
scanned, we assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the receipt or use of this message.

 

References

Visible links
1. http://gov.uk/ofqual
2. http://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/
3. http://twitter.com/ofqual
4. http://youtube.com/ofqual
5. http://linkedin.com/company/ofqual
6. http://gov.uk/ofqual
7. http://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/
8. http://twitter.com/ofqual
9. http://youtube.com/ofqual
10. http://linkedin.com/company/ofqual