Exams watchdog denies A-levels were fixed

Pressure was mounting last night for an independent inquiry into allegations that this year's A-level results were deliberately fixed to make the exam appear harder.

However, the Government's exams watchdog – the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority – rejected the schools' claims that A-level results were deliberately lowered as "inherently implausible".

Ken Boston, the authority's new chief executive, is to lead an investigation into the marking of coursework by one of the three main exam boards.

He has asked the Oxford and Cambridge and RSA (OCR) board to hand over the results of coursework and written exams in English, physics, chemistry, history, geography, design and technology, French, German and psychology A-levels for scrutiny. "We need to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible," he said. "We are looking at the results to see if there is any pattern of deflation in coursework results."

Dr Boston will report his findings on Friday.