Edexcel AS and A level Politics specification amendments

Issue 4 of the A level Politics specification and Issue 3 of the AS level Politics specification are now available on our website.

Both specifications are for first teaching September 2026, and for first assessment June 2027 (AS level) and June 2028 (A level). You can find a summary of the changes at the start of each specification.

You can download the updated versions of the specifications here:

The changes are minor, but some will affect how you teach the qualification, so please check them carefully. For example, in UK Politics section 3.1, we have replaced Supplementary Vote (SV) with Closed Proportional List System to reflect its adoption in Senedd elections.

To support you with understanding the changes, we are providing guidance documents showing the marked-up changes:

• one document for the main specification content, which details the rationale behind each of the amendments; 
• and one document for the Key terminology glossary (Appendix 2).

There are no amendments to the Sample Assessment Materials, as the assessment model is unchanged.

If you have any questions about these changes please feel free to contact me.