Ofgem has announced a 6.4% increase in the energy price cap for Q2 2025, covering the period from 1 April to 30 June 2025, setting the new cap at £1,849 annually for an average household paying by Direct Debit for dual fuel. This represents a 9.4% (£159) increase compared to the previous year's cap of £1,690.

Ofgem has launched a consultation on proposing to extend ongoing fit and proper person requirements to all licence holders. The requirements, which currently apply only to gas and electricity suppliers and carbon dioxide transport and storage licence holders, would mandate all licensees to ensure senior personnel remain suitable for their roles beyond initial application. This proposal aims to address the fact that company leadership can change over time, ensuring continuous standards of suitability. The consultation seeks views from existing licensees, potential applicants, industry trade bodies, and consumer groups. The consultation closes on 31 October 2025.

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) has announced the introduction of a new Principles Condition into its General Conditions of Recognition framework. The changes, following a consultation that ran from November 2024 to February 2025, establish six core principles covering areas including honesty, fairness and compliance. Ofqual will issue two advice notes to support implementation and has modified reporting requirements. The new framework takes effect from 4 December 2025, with changes made to accommodate concerns raised during consultation about regulatory burden and compliance evidence.

Ofqual has updated its Analytics platform to enable users to explore qualification results by local authority district, administrative county or unitary authority and administrative region in England. For the first time, qualification results and subject uptake data at local authority level will be published on results days, giving students, parents, policymakers and local leaders a more detailed picture of local and regional outcomes. The platform covers GCSEs, A levels, T Level Technical Qualifications and Performance Table Qualifications. The 2026 results data will be available from 9.30 am on 13 August 2026 for A levels and 20 August 2026 for GCSEs. Made in response to requests for more detailed and geographically accurate data, the change will allow users to compare qualification outcomes and subject uptake across different areas of England and support timely analysis of geographical inequalities in qualification outcomes.

Ofqual has imposed a £270,000 financial penalty on Cambridge OCR for serious errors in AS and A Level physics exam papers in summer 2025. Between April and October 2025, 12 errors were identified in assessment materials delivered to over 14,000 students, with the exam board failing to ensure the materials were fit for purpose, in breach of its regulatory conditions. Two errors identified after results day led to 37 students having their grades increased by one grade. In addition, Cambridge OCR’s failure to maintain clear Special Consideration arrangements resulted in three further incorrect higher results. Ofqual found that the issues stemmed from inadequate control systems, gaps in staff competence and insufficient capacity. The exam board accepted the breaches and entered into settlement agreements with Ofqual. It has also committed to an action plan to prevent recurrence, including strengthened technical checking procedures for physics exam papers. Ofqual will monitor compliance with this plan and has indicated it will take further action if improvements are not implemented.

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) has imposed just over £2m in combined financial penalties on exam board, Pearson, for breaches of its Conditions of Recognition across three separate cases between 2019 and 2023. The penalties comprise £750,000 for failures to manage grading standards risks in GCSE English language 2.0 affecting 23,165 student entries, £505,000 for assessment issues in A-level Chinese affecting approximately 12,000 students and £750,000 for malpractice in the discontinued PTE Academic Online English proficiency test resulting in 9,910 revoked results. Ofqual's enforcement panel concluded that the fines were appropriate after taking into account mitigating factors including Pearson's acceptance of the breaches and entry into settlement agreements. This brings Pearson's total number of Ofqual fines to seven, with the regulator's highest previous penalty being £1.2m imposed in 2022.

Ofqual has imposed a monetary penalty of £150,000 on the University of West London (UWL) for non-compliance with its General Conditions of Recognition. Ofqual’s investigation found that between January 2020 and November 2022, UWL failed to exercise adequate oversight over a third-party centre that designed, delivered and awarded music theory qualifications to 224 learners without undergoing UWL’s approval process. The investigation also identified that 4,300 students taking Ofqual’s regulated Theory Music qualifications did not receive their certificates promptly, that there was absence of an appeal process for students for nearly three years and that unauthorised test papers were used, directly affecting 224 students. During this period, approximately 40,000 students received certificates via the centre. In addition, when Ofqual imposed special conditions requiring UWL to commission an independent audit, UWL initially failed to meet those requirements which Ofqual determined was due to negligence. Ofqual concluded that the breaches were serious in nature and posed a risk to students and to public confidence in the examinations system.

Ofqual has launched a consultation on proposed conditions, requirements and statutory guidance for regulating apprenticeship assessments. The proposals are intended to implement the Department for Education’s (DfE) Apprenticeship Assessment Principles published earlier this year, which aim to simplify and modernise how apprentices are assessed. They include nine new conditions covering assessment strategies, compliance with assessment plans, content requirements and standard setting, supported by guidance on assessment design, grading and marking approaches. The consultation builds on Ofqual’s earlier review of the apprenticeship assessment regulatory framework. Responses are sought by 11 February 2026.

Ofqual has launched a consultation on its proposed regulatory approach for on-screen assessment in GCSEs, AS and A levels in England. The consultation proposes a controlled introduction of digital assessment methods, with traditional pen-and-paper exams remaining the main approach. Ofqual's framework is guided by four principles aimed at mitigating risks to standards and fairness, enhancing assessment quality and accessibility, and ensuring secure delivery capabilities. The consultation closes on 5 March 2026.

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) has launched a consultation to finalise updates to its Taking Regulatory Action (TRA) policy, building upon previous work initiated in 2019. The consultation seeks feedback on implementing decisions published in May 2021, whilst introducing new amendments not covered in the 2019 consultation. Notably, Ofqual has decided against developing fixed penalties and has incorporated select proposals from their 2021 consultation with awarding organisations. The consultation includes both the proposed revised policy wording and specific new proposals, with changes highlighted in bold or grey panels. This represents the final phase of Ofqual's policy update, which was initially delayed due to the pandemic. The consultation is open until 15 May 2025.

Ofqual has published its first Chief Regulator’s Rebuke to WJEC CBAC Ltd (WJEC) for serious breaches of its conditions of recognition affecting four Eduqas General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), AS and A level qualifications between 2019 and 2025, applying a non-statutory enforcement measure where a public outcome was required but a financial penalty was not justified. The breaches arose from WJEC’s failure to collect and monitor mandatory centre declaration forms across subjects including drama and theatre, geography and computer science, which are required to confirm that centres met subject content and assessment requirements. The failures were systemic and prolonged, involving missing monitoring processes, lack of follow-up on non-submission and absence of quality assurance checks, caused by staff unawareness of requirements introduced in 2019 and indicating weaknesses in governance, staff competence and internal controls.

Ofqual has published the outcome of its consultation Amending our Taking Regulatory Action policy, together with analysis and final decision documents. Following broad support for its proposals, Ofqual has adopted the revised policy, now titled Supporting Compliance and Taking Regulatory Action, which governs how it monitors and enforces compliance by awarding organisations in England. The updated policy introduces the Chief Regulator’s Rebuke, a new enforcement tool that may be used when an awarding organisation breaches its conditions but the breach is not serious enough to justify a financial penalty. Awarding organisations may appeal to Ofqual’s Enforcement Panel against findings of non-compliance or the issuing of a rebuke, which will only be published once the appeal period has ended.