RISING numbers of penalties for exam malpractice are being handed out to school staff and students, official figures show.

New statistics reveal a 149 per cent surge in penalties issued to teachers and other workers, while those for pupils rose by 25 per cent.

Malpractice covers anything that could “undermine the integrity of an exam,” according to regulator Ofqual.

This can include students attempting to communicate with each other while sitting a paper, or staff failing to comply with exam board instructions.

The latest figures, covering GCSEs, AS-levels and A-levels taken in England last summer, show that 2,715 penalties were issued to students.

This is up from 2,180 in 2016, while 895 were given to staff, up from 360 the year before.

Among students, the most common type of malpractice was taking unauthorised materials into an exam, in most cases a mobile phone or other electronic communication device.

The second-largest category of student malpractice was plagiarism.