Richard Porte, Royal Society of Chemistry spokesperson said today:

"The Royal Society of Chemistry welcomes this report by a well-placed independent authority but we do need to look more closely at its findings and recommendations.

"However, at a glance it appears to confirm the points that the RSC made strongly during 2008 regarding erosion of standards in GCSE examinations, which we highlighted last summer when we carried out a national GCSE Five Decade Challenge.

"The report appears to be extremely thorough. Now we expect Ofqual to pursue the important issues that have surfaced.

"One of the conspicuous points made is that brighter students, as we suspected, are not being stretched by the system and candidates are almost walked through the questions.

"No fault lies with students or teachers. It is the system that is at fault and that system requires early, radical surgery."