Qualifications subject to the accreditation requirement

32.Unlike the 1997 Act, the 2009 Act will not require every regulated qualification awarded by a recognised awarding organisation to be individually accredited in order to be a regulated qualification; instead, only those qualifications or awarding organisations that we specifically determine shall be subject to the accreditation requirement. In the longer term we expect to move to a position in which the requirement for accreditation is based on a risk assessment of recognised awarding organisations and the regulated qualifications they award. Any specific requirements relating to particular qualifications that were not subject to the accreditation requirement would be imposed through general recognition conditions. However this position will only be reached following further consultation and engagement with stakeholders. We therefore propose that from 1 April 2010, until we are ready to change the position, all qualifications will continue to be subject to the accreditation requirement. 33.The 2009 Act stipulates that we may not accredit forms of qualifications if the submission does not meet the applicable accreditation criteria. Any reference in any of the various criteria, terms and conditions or codes of practice that are proposed for use under the transitional arrangements to conditional accreditation¹ should be read in light of this change. 34.We propose that any applications for accreditation that have not been completed immediately prior to 1 April 2010 should continue to be considered against the relevant accreditation criteria set out below from 1 April 2010.

1. Under the 1997 Act Ofqual was able to impose accreditation conditions on qualifications that had been submitted for application, where some aspect of the accreditation criteria had not been met in full. The conditions required the awarding organisation to meet that part of the criteria in full by a specified date. Where such conditions were imposed accreditation was conditional on those conditions being met within the specific timeframe. There is no power under the 2009 Act to impose such conditions in future. [↩]