ACCA SBL December 2026: The One Word That Cost Marks in Task 3(b)

In the December 2025 SBL exam, candidates dropped marks on a 16-mark task by ignoring one word: "responsible". Read the requirement for its qualifier before you write a single line.

What the examiner actually said

Task 3(b) asked for the benefits of introducing a responsible business committee, plus the challenges of doing so. It carried 12 technical marks and 4 professional skills marks. The examiner's report is blunt: many candidates described a generic business committee, tracking occupancy and RevPAR, rather than one focused on responsible business.

A second group wrote about the benefits of being a responsible business. That is a different question from the benefits of introducing the committee. A third group copied the committee's responsibilities from Exhibit 4. Listing what a committee does is not the same as explaining why it helps.

The challenges half was weaker still

Most candidates offered one or two challenges, usually "lack of experience" and "cost". Few connected the directors' limited ESG knowledge to the real difficulty of finding suitable NEDs to sit on the committee. That link was the mark-earner, and the scenario handed it to you.

Tone cost marks too. Candidates wrote "The NEDs are incompetent" in a report addressed to the board. The concern is valid. The phrasing is not. Professional skills marks reward diplomatic wording of the same point.

Wrong vs right

Wrong: "The committee will review Beston's occupancy, RevPAR and room rates, and report to the board each quarter."

Right: "A responsible business committee gives ESG a named owner at board level. That helps Beston evidence its commitments to guests and investors and spot reputational risk early, particularly as it integrates Dulit's hotels."

The first copies the exhibit. The second answers "benefits of introducing", applies the word "responsible", and ties it to the scenario.

What to do

1. Circle the qualifier. Before planning, underline every adjective and verb in the requirement: "responsible", "introducing", "challenges". Each one is a marking point.

2. Build challenges from the scenario, not the textbook. Find the fact in the exhibits that makes the challenge real, such as the board's thin ESG knowledge, then link it to the consequence, such as difficulty recruiting NEDs.

3. Read the pre-seen articles. The examiner noted that candidates who skipped the Responsible Leadership article missed useful material for this task. Treat the articles as a source of marks, not background reading.

The bottom line

Task 3(b) was worth 16 marks, and the examiner's report suggests many were lost before the first sentence was finished. In SBL, the question is the syllabus. Answer the one that is printed.