Firm behind UK citizenship tests owned by company embroiled in ‘cheating scandal'

Telegraph

26-05-2025

British citizenship tests will be administered by a company whose new owners were previously embroiled in a cheating scandal, The Telegraph can reveal.
PSI Services, a newly acquired subsidiary of New Jersey-based Educational Testing Services (ETS), was awarded the £19.8 million three-year contract last month.
ETS previously held the contract for providing English language tests for immigration purposes until cheating allegations more than a decade ago compelled the Home Office to sever ties with the provider.
The US assessment firm has now returned to immigration testing by purchasing PSI Services, which has been given responsibility for creating and rolling out the Life in the UK knowledge test for those seeking to become British citizens.
A spokesman for ETS said that despite the purchase, PSI was 'operating as a separate entity'.
The test is currently made up of 24 multiple choice questions aimed at proving the applicant has sufficient knowledge of British values, history and laws.
It costs £50, takes 45 minutes and has a 75 per cent pass mark, asking questions such as: 'Who was the King of England at the time of the Norman invasion in 1066?'
The Home Office has determined the bounds of required knowledge, which ranges from early British history and religion to politics, arts and culture.
Setting out its specifications, the Government also recommended that questions should be asked on more taboo topics such as 'domestic violence', 'forced marriage', 'female genital mutilation', 'ethnic diversity', 'the slave trade' and 'conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq'.
ETS, the world's largest private provider of testing and assessments, bought PSI Services in January 2024.
Claims of systemic cheating
The company held the licence to carry out the UK's secure English language testing for immigration purposes until it was alleged that its English language tests had been undermined by allegations of systemic cheating.
An undercover BBC investigation in 2014 claimed tests were being sat by 'proxy' test takers on behalf of actual candidates and some invigilators were reading out answers.
It was later claimed that some ETS staff had informed the Home Office of significant evidence of organised cheating almost two years before it was exposed, as they voiced concern that efforts to close some 'fraudulent' test centres were being blocked by managers worried that test fee income would fall.
Asked by the Home Office to mark its own homework, the testing giant allegedly found that of around 58,000 people who sat the test between 2011 and 2015, some 58 per cent had used deception while another 39 per cent were deemed questionable.
ETS's allegations prompted the Government to arbitrarily cancel 36,000 student visas and deport more than 2,500 people, with many since contesting the US company's findings.
In the wake of the scandal, the Home Office cut ties with ETS, saying the contract had ended and would not be extended, and ETS closed its UK subsidiary.
Wes Streeting, now the Health Secretary, told Parliament in 2018 that ETS was 'the grubby contractor at the centre of this scandal' and had 'serious questions to answer about their conduct in all this'.
Stephen Timms, a Labour MP, said: 'Clearly, ETS was a discredited witness and yet the Home Office relied on them totally.'
At the time, a spokesman for ETS told the BBC: 'ETS does everything it can to detect and prevent rare instances of dishonest test administrators or test takers.'
In 2019 the company confirmed it had taken prompt action when it was made aware of serious allegations about UK tests in 2014.
It said these were conducted by third-party contractors and overseen by its UK office.
A spokesman said: 'ETS shared our methodology and findings with the UK Home Office but did not make any recommendations in relation to the same nor was ETS involved in determining how such information was utilised by the Home Office in its subsequent actions.'
ETS added that it would continue to improve test security.
Last year, Reed in Partnership was also handed a three year contract with option to extend to develop and deliver a test of knowledge of Life in the UK.
Asked how both Reed in Partnership and PSI Services would be sharing the responsibilities for creating and running the service, the Home Office declined to comment.
PSI Services is joining the immigration testing fold at a time when trust in citizenship testing has been rocked by further incidents of individual fraud.
'Complete disregard for UK immigration laws'
In February, a 42-year-old woman from Kent was arrested on suspicion of wearing disguises to fraudulently sit the Life in the UK test on behalf of at least 12 people across multiple test centres.
Chris Foster, the Home Office's criminal and financial investigation lead for London, said: 'This individual went to extreme lengths, using wigs and disguises to impersonate others and cheat the immigration system, showing a complete disregard for UK safety and immigration laws.
'There are 30 test centres around the UK and hundreds of thousands of people throughout the course of the year who sit the Life in the UK test and many are doing it legitimately.'
The arrest came soon after Josephine Maurice, 61, from Enfield, admitted using wigs to fraudulently take the Life in the UK test on behalf of 13 people between June 2022 and August 2023.
A spokesman for ETS said: 'PSI is a wholly owned subsidiary of ETS, operating as a separate entity.
'Under the terms of the contract between PSI and the Home Office, PSI retains full responsibility for the delivery of the Life in the UK Test on behalf of the Home Office.
'While PSI is now under ETS ownership, it functions with autonomy in service execution for this contract.'