US Edition Lord Sutherland, who led an independent inquiry into the delayed tests results of tens of thousands of pupils in England, said he did not know of "any major company that wouldn't have done that kind of probing if they were bringing on board a relatively or completely new player into the game".
In his official inquiry, published last month, Lord Sutherland laid blame at a culture of "complacency" within the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and endemic errors by ETS Europe, the firm in charge of the exam marking. The contractor was sacked last August and the investigation concluded that the QCA failed to intervene early enough when problems emerged.
Giving evidence to the Commons schools select committee yesterday, he said: "I don't know companies that don't do that kind of probing, whether it's by telephone or Googling.
"If you Google, first you get the press cuttings and then you say, ah no, that's so and so but here's a serious report that maybe we need to inquire into further - and that's what wasn't done."
Some 1.2m pupils aged 11 and 14 sat tests in May and results should have been delivered by early July.
But a series of mistakes by the Government's QCA and ETS led to huge delays in marking papers.
Barry Sheerman, select committee chairman, said on Monday that at least one school only received marked papers this week - around seven months late.
Lord Sutherland added: "If they have publicly failed to deliver on contracts in previous years, I'm not talking about 1920 here but earlier within the current period of five, six, seven years, if it failed to deliver then, then you ask what have they done to improve their delivery and performance?"
He also warned the committee that new tests being lined up to replace Sats risk failing because they are too complex.
Warning that there could be a repeat of blunders, he said the complexity of the new system meant there were "additional risks that things will slip up".
The Government has now scrapped Sats for 14-year-olds and is piloting new "single level" tests which could replace the controversial exams in primary schools.
Under the pilot, which is being carried out in hundreds of schools, pupils sit less-pressurised exams up to twice a year when they are ready. Rather than being given a mark, pupils simply pass or fail - moving up to the next level when they do so.
But the new system has already attracted criticism amid fears children will actually be forced to sit more tests.
Lord Sutherland said: "If you make the system more complex there are additional risks that things will slip up and there is a possibility of that."
But he insisted that it was "important" that a system of national testing remains.