'I want to say this: I am sorry' - @JohnSwinney talking about the 'anguish' young people have suffered during #COVID19 and how this was made worse for some by #SQAResults

Stresses apology not enough and he will 'now' make it right - stressing again what first minister said yesterday, which is that in attempt to make system fair and credible, government lost sight of impact on individuals

@JohnSwinney thanks the teaching profession for professionalism and 'care and attention taken' #SQAResults

'We were concerned that grade inflation would run the risk of undermining the credibility of grades in 2020' - @JohnSwinney - but says this made young people lose faith in education system which seemed to be stacked against them. This cannot be allowed to happen, cabsec says

'I can confirm to parliament today that all downgraded awards will be withdrawn. Using powers available to me in the Education (Scotland) Act 1996, I am today directing the SQA to re-issue those awards based solely on teacher or lecturer judgement' - wow. #SQAResults

. @JohnSwinney says he will make sure universities and colleges will have enough places available to ensure noone crowded out as a result of this move @TesScotland @tesfenews @CollegesScot @uni_scot

Important to say, again, that while the majority of people who will be affected by this are young people in schools, it also affects thousands of all ages in Scottish colleges. Here is a piece I did last week on original results and adult learners https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-sqa-results-spare-thought-older-learners

For what it is worth, and although it won't make anything better, apologies like this, both from FM and Swinney, are not awfully common in politics - I certainly haven't covered many

Story from my colleague @Emma_Seith here now https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-swinney-all-downgraded-results-be-withdrawn