For the record

In 'Soldiers to sue MoD for lives blighted by Iraq' (News, 22 January) we said: '[John] Reid... was marking the first time a cabinet minister had met those seriously injured in Iraq.' This was incorrect. Geoff Hoon, when Defence Secretary, first visited the injured at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham in April 2003 and subsequently in Iraq itself.

'Stories about our compensation culture are tosh' (Comment, last week) referred to a case involving a Mersey-side firefighter. We claimed the fire service turned down an opportunity to settle the case for £40,000 and that insurers 'dragged out the case' to the Court of Appeal. However, the figure sought was £400,000 and the decision to defend the case was based on legal advice, not insurance considerations.

A bar chart purporting to show the steady decline in British independent retailers which accompanied 'MPs declare war on power of the supermarket giants' (Business, last week), omitted to annotate the actual years of decline (2000-2004) and gave an incorrect total for 2003. For 39,030, read 29,030.

· Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers' Editor, The Observer, 3-7 Herbal Hill, London EC1R 5EJ, tel 020 7713 4656 or email reader@observer.co.uk