Ofqual, the regulator for qualifications in England, announced on 11 June 2026 that it had fined Cambridge English £875,000. The penalty follows faults in the computer marking of the Listening and Reading sections of IELTS taken on screen. The marking compared answers with fixed answer keys set by human experts; Ofqual said the system did not use machine learning.
Key facts
- Fine £875,000 (Ofqual)
- Period 24 August 2023 to 4 September 2025
- People affected 62,794 with wrong Listening or Reading results, all corrected
- Overall score changed 21,717 people (1,115 lowered)
What went wrong
The errors ran from 24 August 2023 until September 2025, when Cambridge English found them while updating its error-checking system and told Ofqual. Across about 7.7 million tests in that period, 93,865 responses were marked incorrectly. In 62,794 cases a person received a wrong Listening or Reading result, which was later corrected. For 21,717 people the overall band changed: most went up, but 1,115 went down. Corrections were usually half a band; two were a full band.
The IELTS statement adds that 1,108 affected tests were IELTS for UKVI tests, 279 of which saw a change in CEFR level. In four cases the wrong result affected visa eligibility; all four people later resat and met the requirement. IELTS says 26,246 people asked for and received refunds and 1,145 took a free resit.
What happens now
Cambridge English accepted the breaches, agreed a settlement and gave an undertaking to prevent a repeat. Ofqual says it spent more than £6 million on corrections, compensation and support. IELTS says it has added new checks and controls.
What this means
If you sat IELTS between August 2023 and September 2025 and did not get an email from IELTS about this issue, your result was not affected. If you did, the corrected result is the one to use. Check that any university or visa application holds your corrected Test Report Form, and keep the email you received. Questions about a specific result go to IELTS customer support through the score corrections page on ielts.org.