Conflict of Interest anyone?

Last night, across the wire on PA there was a report that said the following,

Department of Energy and Climate Change employees have received corporate hospitality from energy provider E.ON on several occasions over the last two years, it was disclosed tonight.

Junior minister David Kidney said this included dinner and a private viewing at the Royal Academy in January last year.

In the same month, another unnamed Department employee was treated to a "light buffet supper" by the company, which also offered lunch to officials on two occasions in 2007.

In a Commons written reply to Liberal Democrat David Howarth (Cambridge), Mr Kidney did not say how many employees overall had received corporate hospitality from E.ON but insisted it followed civil service guidance that it should be "conventional, normal and reasonable".

Only last month seven DECC staff visited the company's Rushcliffe on Soar power station and research centre, being given lunch and a "small gift bag".

Funny how there is no mention of Ed miliband, the Secretary of State at the department and the fact he's in a relationship with a senior employee of E.ON huh?