The chairman of the Commons Education Select Committee has said that humans must be at the heart of any replacement grading system if exams in England are cancelled for a second time - rather than attempting to use an algorithm again.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon told Tes that in the event of a second wave of coronavirus or local lockdowns that prevented exams from happening, he thought Ofqual and the government should steer clear of introducing another algorithm for standardising teacher-estimated grades.

“My preference would be for teacher-assessed grades, but not to have any algorithm,” he said.

“Instead, you could use independent assessors as a check and balance - you could have retired teachers, Ofsted inspectors and teachers in other schools, and they could look at these grades and make a judgement about whether that is a fair grade.”

Mr Halfon noted that ideally this would not be necessary and exams would go ahead - even if this meant potentially delaying them in summer 2021 - but said that a plan needed to be formulated soon to avoid a repeat of this year’s fiasco.

GCSE and A-level results chaos

“I am very keen that the exams do go ahead - even if they have to be delayed by a few weeks - but we need a very clear plan set by Ofqual and the government about what is going to happen if they are not going to take place. That needs to happen by October,” the former skills minister said.

“The key watchwords are stability, clarity and good communication.”

Related: Ofqual’s days could be numbered, says Halfon

Exams chaos: U-turn will mean A-level and GCSE teacher grades stand

A levels 2020: Grades ‘utterly unfair and unfathomable’

Mr Halfon made his comments ahead of Ofqual officials appearing before the committee on Wednesday to be questioned about this summer’s results debacle.

In an interview with Tes on Friday, he said the committee would also question whether Ofqual should be absorbed into the Department for Education.

Ofqual’s appearance will be followed by the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, on 16 September.

This year’s exam results were beset with problems due to the statistical process for calculating GCSE and A level grades, culminating in a last-minute U-turn to mostly award teacher-assessed grades after all.

This week, Sally Collier resigned from her post as chief regulator at Ofqual.

Ms Collier stepped down from her role after Ofqual chose to ditch its standardisation process to calculate grades this year following outrage from students and teachers over A-level grades that were far lower than they expected.

She has been replaced in the short term by her predecessor, Dame Glenys Stacey, supported by Ofsted boss Amanda Spielman.