Much has been made of the failure to produce the research of the body. The benchmarking body did publish an extensive description of the research it had carried out. What it did not publish was the raw data it collected on private sector earnings and there are a number of reasons for this. In the first instance, most of the data collected on private sector jobs and earnings was received on a very strictly confidential basis – it would not be possible to get it otherwise. In addition, even in the public service some data was collected on the basis that the individual responses would remain confidential. In any event publishing masses of raw data would only create scope for endless challenge and nit-picking. This would have delayed the process and moved it more to a negotiation process rather than a third party examination.