An exam board is to be fined a record £175,000 after mixing up the Montagues and the Capulets in a GCSE paper.

A question about Romeo and Juliet in an OCR English literature paper, which was sat by 14,261 candidates last May, confused the two warring families.

Their mistake rendered the question incomprehensible and meant that the exam paper was “not fit for purpose”, according to the exam regulator Ofqual.

On Monday Ofqual announced that it intends to impose a hefty financial penalty of £175,000 on OCR, which is the largest fine it has ever issued.

The error was in a question that read: "How does Shakespeare present the ways in which Tybalt's hatred of the Capulets influences the outcome of the play?"

But Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and a Capulet himself, so the question should have referred to his hatred of the Montagues.

The question was one of two Romeo and Juliet questions on the paper, with candidates required to pick one to answer.