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In the discussion on A-level grades, a reminder that the Government is well aware of the problems of models and algorithms, and their implementation
In 2012, the West Coast franchise was awarded to FirstGroup. Virgin Group complained, serious errors were found in the model used by DfT, and the award to FirstGroup was cancelled https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/oct/03/transport-secretary-west-coast-mainline
This cost the Government £54 million https://www.nao.org.uk/naoblog/beautiful-models-a-review-framework/ and, as a result, a report was commissioned to prevent this happening again
In 2013, Nick Macpherson, Permanent Secretary of the Treasury published a 'Review of quality assurance of Government analytical models' https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-quality-assurance-of-government-models
Prophetically, the first sentence of the paragraph is 'Modelling is essential to the work of government. From predicting the spread of pandemic flu to forecasting population growth, models underpin decisions which affect people’s lives.'
Macpherson's report was operationalized in HM Government by the 'The Aqua Book: guidance on producing quality analysis for government'. Here it is: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-aqua-book-guidance-on-producing-quality-analysis-for-government
The Aqua book recommends that there should be a Senior Responsible Owner for each model (for departments and their arm's length bodies, such as Ofqual)
I cannot find any reference to the Aqua book or 'quality assurance' in Ofqual's model documentation for awarding A-levels (and GCSEs) in 2020 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/awarding-gcse-as-a-levels-in-summer-2020-interim-report
