• An article said campaigners had asked the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba) to look into the former biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner Fraser Sampson taking up a role at a private company, Facewatch (“Facial recognition watchdog joins surveillance firm he approved”, 10 December, p6), and that it was “understood [Acoba] is currently considering the issue”. In fact, Acoba has told us that such public appointments as that of the biometrics commissioner are outside its remit. Sampson, as the article reported, said he complied fully with the terms of his appointment in consulting relevant Home Office officials about the new position.
• In reporting on an upcoming film and a photographic exhibition relating to the Kindertransport hero Sir Nicholas Winton, we referred to his achievement in “setting up an escape route from Germany” for child refugees. We should have said from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia (“Feats of Britain’s ‘Schindler’ spring to vivid new life”, 10 December, p25).
• Bumpy ride: a travel feature about cycling in Flanders, Belgium, referred to routes made of cobbles. While the phrase “riding the cobbles” is commonly used by cyclists, the routes are in fact paved with geometric blocks, known as setts, which are quarried and shaped, as distinct from cobblestones, which are generally smaller, naturally rounded rocks (“Call of the cobbles”, 26 November, Magazine, p35).
• Write to the Readers’ Editor, the Observer, York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk, tel 020 3353 4736
