Government bosses have thanked a daily newspaper after it highlighted misinformation on their website.

Northern Ireland’s Department for Economy has rectified an error that seemingly went unnoticed for nine months before being pulled up by the Irish News.

The error in question related to a report on the energy sector which was critical of the department and governance of Northern Ireland’s energy sector.

The Belfast-based News had reported in March how some of the most scathing lines from the report had been altered or removed following discussions between DfE officials and the authors.

The department’s Belfast headquarters

The department had consistently insisted that while it funded the report, it did not commission it.

But the News has now discovered an e-bulletin penned by DfE officials and posted on the department’s website in June last year.

The error has now been corrected as a result.

A DfE spokesperson told the News: “Thank you for highlighting this.

“A clarification has now been made to the e-bulletin on the website.”