AN English test due to be taken by year six pupils across the country today, Tuesday, has been accidentally published online.

The answers to the Key Stage Two grammar, punctuation and spelling test are understood to have appeared on a website for an English exam board on Monday evening, where they remained in a password-protected area for several hours before being removed.

The Department for Education (DfE) said it was urgently investigating how the tests appeared on the site for exam markers working for a Government contractor.

The leak was not judged to be significant enough to cancel Tuesday's test, with the number of visitors to the site thought to be in the dozens, but Labour said the gaffe was a 'body blow' to parent and teacher confidence in the Government.

A DfE spokesman said: "We are aware that Pearson, the external marking supplier responsible for Key Stage Two tests, published the Key Stage Two grammar, punctuation and spelling test on its secure marker site, for a short period of time. We are urgently investigating this breach.

"The site can only be accessed by Pearson's approved markers, all of whom are under secure contract. Any distribution of materials constitutes a clear breach of that contract."

In April a spelling test due to be taken by thousands of seven-year-olds was scrapped after it was accidentally released online.

The section of the Key Stage One final exam was published as a sample paper on the DfE website on January 26, which a DfE spokesman described as 'deeply regrettable'.