Leaving aside who said what to whom from Rome (News from Britain and Ireland, 19 April) regarding the refusal of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to publish the Vatican questionnaire on Family Life – for without knowing the result, the survey may be in favour or not in favour of the traditional Church teaching on this subject – the issue at stake is that of transparency. In tertiary institutions, when a research student proposes research that involves a questionnaire, an obligatory question from the university research body that must be satisfactorily addressed in the proposal is, “How will this survey/questionnaire benefit participants of the survey?” If the research candidate cannot demonstrate benefit to the participants, it is referred back to