Boiling up and down

Representatives of 'BBC Women' are due to meet BBC DG Lord Hall and his deputy Anne Bulford this week, to discuss the PwC report on presenter pay.

PwC worked with Eversheds on the first BBC equal pay 'audit' - not perhaps the re-assuring word of yore, as we remember fully-audited Kid's Company and Carillion - and it was a sampling exercise. Director of News Fran Unsworth has promised that this current exercise will be  'a comprehensive analysis of presenter pay. Everyone at the BBC has wanted to do this as quickly as possible, but equally, we need to get it right. PwC are working with us to ensure an objective external assessment.'

So there'll be disappointment if the audit uses samples, rather than all the data about all presenters - crikey, how many can there be ?  And shouldn't the BBC be able to track equal pay on its own, without external accountants ?