Our Letters editor takes to task this week's Independent coverage

Recent articles in The Independent have reported how the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) refused publicly to disclose the identities of blue chip companies which hired private detectives.  Sir Ian Andrews, was Chairman of SOCA when the decision to classify the information was made and communicated to a parliamentary select committee. He has asked us to make clear that he was uninvolved in the decision-making process: that as non-executive Chairman, his role was simply to communicate and explain the decision made by SOCA officers and that his resignation as SOCA Chairman was unconnected with his appearances before the select committee. It was solely as a result of his failure formally to disclose to SOCA that in 2012 he had become the director of a management consultancy company which he ran with his wife.

On Saturday, a production error resulted in the wrong grid for the Independent Codeword being printed. The hints letters were correct. You can find and print the correct grid above (click to enlarge.)

In Saturday’s print edition we accidentally attributed a poll about pet insurance to Friends Provident rather than the correct sponsor of the survey, Friends Life. We are happy to put the record straight.

We would like to clarify that Victor Dahdaleh, whose anti-corruption trial collapsed on Tuesday (The Independent, 11 December), has not donated funds directly to the Labour Party but has made donations to think tanks often associated with the Party, including the IPPR. 

Contrary to a report last Saturday, contractors for Sainsbury’s new store in Dorridge (due to open in autumn 2014) were appointed two weeks ago.  Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King does not have a house in Dorridge itself; his property is some miles away from the town.  We are happy to set the record straight.

This week's Independent is put under the microscope by our in-house pedant

An article of 18 June (‘Operation death: the doctor who faked his results’) reported that Dr Edward Erin, who was previously convicted of trying to poison his lover to induce a miscarriage, had been further convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice after asking a former cellmate to kill his ex-mistress and her child.  We would like to clarify that, while that claim was made by the former cellmate, the conviction was based on Erin’s attempt to undermine the original case against him vis-à-vis the poisoning charge.  

The head-line of our article: “Channel Tunnel accused of ‘outrageous’ tax avoidance” (25 October 2013) omitted to give the full title of the company referred to, Channel Tunnel rail link (HS1) .

Our Letters Editor and chief pedant checks this week's Independent for howlers

Our Letters Editor reviews the slips from this week's paper

Due to a production error, the TV listings in this morning’s Independent print edition contain some details for tomorrow’s programming.  We apologise to all our readers for the inconvenience caused by this mistake.

In our article ‘Insurance investigators accessed teen crash victim’s phone records’ (12 August 2013) we stated that the investigators worked for MIB, the Motor Insurer’s Bureau.

The Independent on Sunday article “So much migration puts Europe's dykes in danger of bursting” on 18 August asserted that in the year 2000 only about 0.1 per cent of EU citizens lived and worked in another EU country.