Swinney was told the scale of SQA's plan to downgrade 124,564 Covid exam results but raised 'no concerns', inquiry hears

Former SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson told the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry on Thursday that the exam body had expected its 2020 grading algorithm to provoke a "hostile" public response — yet John Swinney, then education secretary, raised no objections after being briefed on its full scale. Robertson, who stepped down in February 2025, said SQA knew it would be downgrading results in a "minority of cases" and that the outcome would be "contested."

The algorithm cut 124,564 results, with pupils from deprived schools disproportionately affected — a detail that fuelled the public outcry.

Student Erin Bleakley says her legs buckled when she opened her results and, despite a partial reversal, she never recovered the A grades her prelims predicted.

Swinney later overturned the downgrades as deputy first minister, restoring teacher estimates — but for some pupils already pushed into clearing, it was too late.