• An article said Avon and Somerset police had recorded the highest number of stop and searches on children under 10 in England and Wales in 2023, according to data.police.uk, an official site for open data on crime and policing (“Hundreds of children under 10 subject to stop and search”, 26 May, p17). After publication, the force said a technical error meant individuals whose ages were unknown had been wrongly categorised; as such, there were two confirmed cases involving under-10s, not 117. The total number of stop and searches on children under 10 across all forces was therefore 317, not 432. Also, more than 150 of the searches related to illicit drugs, not 200, and 56 rather than 87 related to suspicions of carrying offensive weapons.
• We said David Cameron’s proposals for a special youth programme for 16-year-olds “never came to fruition”. In fact, the voluntary scheme became the National Citizen Service, launched in 2010 (“Sunak promises to bring back national service for 18-year-olds”, 26 May, p8, late editions).
• The caption below a picture of the former police officer Vic Paterson said she “retrained as a physio after developing back problems”. In fact, she became a soft tissue therapist (“Lack of physio jobs see waiting lists soar by 27%”, 26 May, p21).
• We referred to Tom Morris as the director behind the stage adaptation of War Horse. To clarify, he co-directed it with Marianne Elliott (“Opioid scandal’s ‘lurid tale of greed’ inspires new opera”, 26 May, p24).
• Owing to an editing error, the surname of the Jam band member Rick Buckler was given as “Waller” in an interview with the musician Paul Weller (“‘Look for the good in things’”, 26 May, Magazine, p13).
• Other recently amended articles include:
‘They call us Nazis’: inside the wealthy German town where the far right is on the rise
Israel continues Rafah operation as hostage bodies are recovered
Does Checkatrade’s vetting really check out?
Music helps you get fit – but the right mix will keep you coming back…
Sadiq Khan’s win ‘bucks trend’ of Muslim voters rejecting Labour over Gaza, say party figures
• Write to the Readers’ Editor, the Observer, York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk, tel 020 3353 4736
