Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times should be addressed to [email protected] or Complaints, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF. Find more details on our complaints procedure here. In addition, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) will examine formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines.
■ December 13, 2020
The article “My rocket is bigger than yours” (Magazine, November 29) failed to acknowledge the journalists Chris Davenport and Tim Fernholz as sources for some of the material. We apologise for the omission.
■ December 6, 2020
The article “Private hospital was paid £6.3m to receive a single NHS patient” (News, last week) was based on unchecked data, which was later found to contain errors. Circle Health treated patients across 53 facilities, not two as stated. Transform Hospital Group treated more than 1,500 patients, not one as stated, and did so on a not for profit basis. We apologise to the providers concerned.
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■ November 15, 2020
Our report “England’s ‘Little Scotland’ wants say in any referendum” (News, August 30) stated that more than half of Scottish voters backed independence and that 55% hoped to secede from the Union. The article should have made clear that these figures were based on a single Panelbase poll, and did not include the 7% of respondents who were undecided: with these included, 51% favoured independence while 42% opposed it.
A projection of Covid-19 infections shown by Sir Patrick Vallance on September 21 was referring to reported cases, not overall infections (Dominic Lawson, Comment, last week). The projection suggested cases per day might rise to 49,000 by mid-October; the actual figure was close to 20,000. We are happy to make this clear.
■ November 8, 2020
Ollie Ollerton did not serve in the army, as we wrongly stated (Money, last week). He served in the Royal Marines and the Special Boat Service, which are parts of the Royal Navy.
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■ October 25, 2020
Our article “Hard left infiltrates Greta’s UK army” (News, September 6) said that activists did not have the support of Dr Rupert Read, spokesman for Extinction Rebellion. The activists referred to were hard-left infiltrators; Dr Read fully supported the Extinction Rebellion action at printing plants, and believes any attempts at infiltration were unsuccessful. We are happy to make this clear.
Tom Bower’s biography of the prime minister does not state that Stanley Johnson allowed his wife one dress a year and visited lovers every night, as we wrongly suggested (Culture, last week): this was a reference to Stanley’s father, Johnny Johnson. We have also been asked to make it clear that an argument concerning the use of Stanley Johnson’s phone did not involve Stanley himself. We are happy to do so.
■ October 04, 2020
We reported that an investigation had begun following allegations of animal cruelty on Fetlar (News, May 17). The owners of Fetlar Farm, Neil Bellis, Juliet Bellis and Lucy Cummings, have confirmed that there was no investigation of cruelty and any investigation was in respect of animal welfare issues.
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While the article reported that islanders “disputed” that improvements had been made, the owners of the farm have confirmed that they had fully co-operated with appropriate agencies and all remedial actions pursuant to the animal welfare investigation were completed by the end of March 2020.
On August 19, 2020 the Animal and Plant Health Agency (which had its final inspection of Fetlar Farm delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic) confirmed that the owners of the farm are in compliance with recommended improvements.
The article also reported that the Serious Fraud Office had investigated the activities of a subsidiary of a former company of Neil Bellis and Lucy Cummings. The inquiry was in respect of an individual employee, subsequently convicted of fraud, and Mr Bellis and Ms Cummings were not party to those offences. We are happy to make these clarifications and apologise to Mr and Mrs Bellis and Ms Cumming.
The City of London Corporation has not been silent on the impact of the working-from-home movement, as we wrongly alleged (Luke Johnson, Business, last week). The corporation has made a number of statements on the subject. We apologise for the error.
■ September 20, 2020
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The item “Dance your way out of this row, folks” (Rod Liddle, Comment, last week) wrongly stated that no opinion polls are available on the level of popular support for the Black Lives Matter movement. In fact a number of polls on this subject have been conducted by agencies including YouGov and Opinium. We apologise for the error.
■ August 14, 2020
On Saturday July 4, Times Online briefly published a photograph of graffiti on the hoarding around Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square before being informed that it had been photoshopped. We apologise for the mistake.
■ July 12, 2020
Our report “Pupils may sit only five GCSEs as state schools play catch-up” (News, last week) failed to make clear that the Harris Federation’s plans to reduce the number of GCSEs taken at its schools apply only to a minority of pupils. We apologise for any confusion and are happy to set the record straight.
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Our report “Fashion giant faces ‘slavery’ investigation” (News, last week) referred to premises displaying the sign Jaswal Fashions. Jaswal Fashions has advised that it ceased operating a clothing business at the premises in November 2018 and never undertook work for Boohoo. We are happy to make this clear.
Our review of The Great Imperial Hangover (Books, Culture, last week) said that the author had characterised the EU as a “post-imperial empire”. The words he used were “post-imperial project”. We apologise for the error.
■ June 28, 2020
The software used by Professor Neil Ferguson to model the Covid-19 pandemic was peer-reviewed, contrary to the statement in our article “Let’s never have another shutdown” (Business, June 14). We are happy to make this clear.
■ May 31, 2020
Our column “Let’s Zoom Xi. He has questions to answer” (Comment, April 5) stated that available records suggested direct flights continued to leave from Wuhan to destinations in Europe and America after the city went into lockdown on January 23. Further investigation, and other records that have come to light since the column was written, show that flights to these destinations due to depart from Wuhan after that date were either cancelled or departed from Guangzhou. We are happy to make this clear.
■ May 10, 2020
Contrary to the impression given by our headline “Send us boiler suits, plead NHS bosses at hospitals with no gowns” (News, last week), hospitals in Devon had not run out of gowns last Sunday. We apologise for the error.
■ May 3, 2020
Because of an editing error, an article on Vladimir Putin (Magazine, March 29) referred to US sanctions being imposed against Gunvor Group. They were in fact imposed against Gennady Timchenko, co-founder of Gunvor. We apologise for the mistake.
Our report “Set free healthy over-seventies, say doctors” (News, last week) referred to 1.8 million people classified as “clinically vulnerable” to Covid-19. In fact this group is officially categorised as “clinically extremely vulnerable”. We apologise for the error.
■ April 19, 2020
Because of an editing error, an article on Antarctica (Travel, April 12) said that Captain Scott’s last words were written in his hut on Cape Evans. In fact they were written in his tent. We apologise for the mistake.
■ March 25, 2020
On March 10 2019, our online edition published a graph indicating that 81% of students at Cardiff University School of Medicine were not from the UK. The graph was incorrect and should not have been published: Cardiff Medical School in fact complies with the 7.5% cap applied to non-EU students. We apologise for the error, which was due to a mistake in the production process.
■ March 15, 2020
Our report “Revealed — A-level results are 48% wrong” (News, August 11) stated that two out of five teenagers who sat essay-based subjects at A-level might be awarded the “wrong” grade. Ofqual argues that the word “wrong” misrepresents the results of its research; that variation in grades is due to the intrinsic subjectivity of marking humanities subjects; and that the true proportion of grades awarded in error is 1.2%. We are happy to make this clear. This correction has been published following an upheld ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
■ March 1, 2020
Our article “House of Lords expenses spiral out of control” (News, last week) stated that Lord Cunningham was not a member of any House of Lords committees. In fact he was a member of three committees during the 2017-19 session. It also stated that the Lords voted in February to award themselves a 3.1% pay rise. No such vote took place, as the Lords’ attendance allowance was indexed to MPs’ pay in 2018. We apologise for the errors.
■ February 16, 2020
Our article “Big investors are cashing in profits in star fund bosses — should you?” (Money, January 19) reported that Fundsmith does not publish the Fundsmith Equity Fund annual accounts online. There is no obligation on the company to do so and it does publish a shortened version of the accounts on the fund’s website and provides the full annual accounts on request. We are happy to make this clear.
■ January 19, 2020
Our article on vertical farming (News Review, last week) contained inaccurate measurements. The Jones Food Company’s vertical farm in Lincolnshire covers 53,000 sq ft, not 5,000; and the urban farm in Paris will cover 160,000 sq ft, not 15,000.