LIKE MANY journaiists, I am a stationery freak I love browsing among paper and ink, particularly in old-fashioned emporia. I like the thickness of a notebook, the smoothness of a pen. But nothing can provide as much fun as a brown envelope.

I am talking about the occasional, glorious, anonymous envelope concealing a batch of leaked documents. One turned up the other day, though at second hand from Greenpeace, the original recipient. Its contents cast light on a scandalous relationship between the Department of Trade and Industry and the off-shore oil operators it both promotes and is supposed to police.

Readers with long memories may recall a story we ran last October showing that the DTI kept no records of pollution incidents. Until two years ago, it had only one part-time inspector to cover the 200 offshore structures and has prosecuted only once for pollution in a quarter of a century. There may, of course, be no connection, but pollution from British instalations is much the worst in the North Sea.

All this was dug out by a small pressure group, the Marine Conservation Society. The DTI first said it would be "impractical" to provlde the information, but recanted when reminded that EU law compelled it.

The new leak is a letter from a top department official warning the UK Offshore Operators Association that the society was "pushing ever harder for the release of environmental information", indicating that this was being provided reluctantly, and appearing to ask the industry's views on what to do.

The department denies this shows "collusion" between regulator and regulated, but it looks pretty cosy to me. In opposition, Labour denounced the relationship. I wonder what will happen now?