Judgments about the quality of marking are a matter for Ofqual. In a published letter to the Secretary of State on 4 July, the chair of Ofqual, Kathleen Tattersall, made it clear that from the evidence available marking quality is at least as good as in previous years and justifies releasing the key stage 2 and key stage 3 test results.
The National Assessment Agency (NAA) announced on 4 July that there would be a slight delay in releasing the key stage 2 (KS2) and key stage 3 (KS3) test results. The delay will affect all pupils who sat the KS2 and KS3 national curriculum tests, the majority of whom will be in years 6 and 9.