A headline, “This man is worth £75m. He makes money from providing services to his own state-run academies. Are England’s schools becoming a cash cow for businessmen?” appeared last week on an investigation into academy trust funding and next to a photograph of the businessman Mike Dwan (News, page 8). Dr Dwan, a benefactor to Bright Tribe Trust and Adventure Learning Academy Trust, has asked us to point out that neither he nor any of his associated trusts or companies make any profit from their work for the academies they support. The trusts’ annual reports and financial statements show that he and his companies ensure that the trusts are fully funded and, where necessary, are provided with services at cost or less, in compliance with the Academies Financial Handbook.
An error introduced into a story headlined “Third of EU referendum voters won’t make up their mind until week before poll” (News, last week, page 7) made it imply that 93% of Ukip supporters would wish to remain in the European Union and 5% leave. We meant exactly the opposite.
The 100 professional fact-checkers gathered in Buenos Aires for their international convention would probably know they were in Argentina, not Brazil (Media, last week, page 42).
Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers’ Editor, the Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk tel 020 3353 4656
