The United Kingdom has a history of performance assessment even for accountability purposes, as the public examinations (standardized achievement tests) at age 16 demonstrate. What the country does not have is a strong history in the area of equity. Debate and policy-making, when concerned at all, have been concentrated on equality of opportunity, but there has been relatively little interest in equality of outcome. Equity does not imply equality of outcome and cannot presume identical experiences for all. Both are unrealistic. Equity in assessment rather implies that assessment practice and interpretation of results are fair and just for all groups. Experience in the United Kingdom with performance assessment suggests that high stakes performance assessment can change curriculum focus and broaden teaching. It is possible to use performance assessment for accountability and certification purposes. Problems do arise, and some of these are discussed in the context of assessment pertaining to the National Curriculum. Although there is no such thing as a perfectly fair test, paying attention to assessment administration and scoring can make tests more fair. Although equality of outcome is not possible, genuine equality of access is a necessary goal. (Contains 22 references.) (SLD)