HC Deb 20 December 1999 vol 341 cc404-5W
Mr. Boswell

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action he is taking to ensure that examining bodies maintain consistent and mutually coherent standards. [102922]

Mr. Wicks

The Education Act 1997 confers powers on the ACCAC and QCA to keep under review all aspects of external vocational and academic qualifications. This year, Ministers endorsed detailed arrangements, developed by the ACCAC, CCEA and QCA, for the regulation of external qualifications. These arrangements set out the criteria which these bodies are applying to accredit qualifications to a national framework and will use to monitor the performance and practices of examining bodies in the delivery of these qualifications.