Candidates have five days to make a claim and taking a holiday doesn’t count
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has published guidance on how to claim for mitigating circumstances in SQE exams as part of a new online resource tool.
According to the regulator, the new page aims to assist SQE candidates with the mitigating circumstances process and direct any frequently asked questions. This comes just over two weeks after SQE2 pass rates were revealed to have reached a peak of 81%.
The SRA notes SQE students can’t submit transport issues as a mitigation circumstance. Holidays and family events, employment, disruptions to study, and “misreading the assessment timetable” also won’t count as mitigating circumstances under the policy.
According to the guidelines, “mitigating circumstances” means assessment or admin “mistakes”, evidence of “bias” during the exam, and any flare-up in illness or sudden changes in a candidate’s personal life. Claims require evidence — such as a death certificate for bereavement — and must be submitted within five days.
Technical or “environmental” issues during the assessment aren’t likely to count as mitigating circumstances according to the website, and are, instead, meant to be resolved by invigilators during the exam day. The guidelines note that if a candidate’s computer freezes, the timer stops — but affected students might get five minutes extra time for “loss of concentration”.
So, tight deadlines and strict evidence rules. Even if a claim is accepted, marks aren’t adjusted: instead, the attempt is “discounted,” allowing you a free retake without it counting toward the three attempt limit. You should get a refund too.
This guidance has landed less than a month after the SRA blamed data quality issues for preventing them from releasing SQE pass rates, meant to help candidates compare providers, in an ongoing delay since 2023.
