I recently lodged a number of Freedom of Information requests with Government departments in an effort to uncover the extent of corporate influence in Whitehall - something which I believe needs to be far better regulated.

Some of the answers I received gave specific details of secondments in and out of Government involving people who work for the big energy companies and energy interests more generally.

The Guardian picked up on this, and yesterday carried a great article by Damian Carrington which highlighted this issue of corporate staff from the energy world who work for free - and the sort of influence over policy making which they might expect in return.

To read the full Guardian piece online, click here.

You can read all of the FOI requests and corresponding answers from Government departments here.