NEBOSH has a strict and rigorous approach to malpractice, plagiarism and collusion. This ensures fairness for all our learners and provides reassurance for the organisations who employ our qualification holders.

During an open book examination, you must not collude or share answers with other learners and all the work you submit must be solely your own.

How we prevent malpractice

To deter and detect malpractice NEBOSH uses a wide range of techniques. These include:

  • The design of the assessment – passing requires application of learning to an unfamiliar scenario. Copy and pasting information from books or online will not answer the questions posed in this open book examination.
  • Own Work Statement – you will be asked to agree to an ‘own work statement’ when submitting your examination.
  • Trained Examiners – NEBOSH Examiners receive bespoke training and scrutinise every submission for plagiarism and collusion.
  • Dedicated Ethical Practice Team – we employ a team of experts dedicated to identifying and investigating malpractice.
  • Plagiarism checkers – We use plagiarism software to spot malpractice, including similarities between cohorts.
  • Closing interviews – every learner must attend a closing interview with their Learning Partner. Further details are available below.
Closing Interviews

Although the interviews are not assessed NEBOSH will not publish your results if you do not attend. The closing interview is a key part of our malpractice approach and includes multiple steps:

Learning Partners are provided with a list of interview questions which are bespoke to the examination paper and designed to check you have the underpinning knowledge and understanding behind your answers. Learning Partners ask the questions in a random sequence so not every learner will be asked the same combination of questions; this prevents learners from predicting the interview questions or coaching others. Learning Partners complete a Closing Interview Record Sheet for every learner.

NEBOSH specifies that the interviewer must have a NEBOSH General Certificate (or equivalent) or at least three years’ experience in the health and safety industry. Before the interview they will read your examination paper so they can ask more detailed questions if required.

During the interview you will be required to: 

  • Show your identification to check you are who you say you are. This is the same as an invigilated examination.
  • Show the room you are in to make sure you are alone.
  • Answer questions about your examination. If you have not written the answers yourself it will be difficult to answer the questions.

To make sure the closing interviews are carried out correctly NEBOSH silently observes a targeted selection of interviews AND scrutinises Closing Interview Record Sheets. If a Learning Partner or NEBOSH suspects malpractice at any time we will investigate further.

NEBOSH Malpractice Policy

Please make sure you read and understand the Malpractice Policy and Digital Assessment Resources beforehand – these contain extensive information about the conduct we expect from our learners and Learning Partners and the disciplinary sanctions for failing to adhere to them.

Our quarterly Ethical Practice Report gives an overview of recent malpractice cases and the penalties given: NEBOSH Ethical Practice Report.

Report malpractice to NEBOSH

If you suspect malpractice please report it to us via email at [email protected]. We take malpractice very seriously and follow up all allegations raised with us.