Overview
- The Home Office is running a five‑year tender worth about £816 million to deliver a single, fully remote English test for visa routes across up to 150 countries, with rollout possible as early as December 2026.
- Lord Chris Smith of Cambridge University says online-only exams invite fraud through hidden phones, screen-sharing, earpieces, camera blind spots, staged internet dropouts, and AI tools that can feed answers in real time.
- GB News reported that Educational Testing Service has withdrawn from the bidding, raising questions about market confidence in a contract of this scale.
- The Home Office says it canvassed the market and is still seeking a provider that meets the highest thresholds for data security and fraud prevention, declining detailed comment during the live procurement.
- The shift comes after the government raised English requirements from GCSE-level to A-level for some visas in January, with the Daily Mail reporting the higher bar will extend to many indefinite leave to remain applications next March, replacing long-used in‑person tests at secure centers.