The number of penalties for bringing phones or smart watches into exams for vocational and technical qualifications quadrupled last year.
Ofqual data published this week showed that 750 of the penalties were issued to VTQ students in 2022 compared with around 150 in 2020-21, 200 in 2019-20 and 300 in 2018-19.
For GCSEs and A-levels there were 1,845 penalties in the most recent year compared with 1,385 in 2019.
The regulator said that the volume of formal exams in VTQs is increasing, and the increase could be driven by processes or rules being less familiar following two years of cancelled exams during the Covid-19 pandemic.
