Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was spent bussing civil servants to a sports day to ‘sit in a field and drink Pimm’s’.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials were paid to play football, volleyball and petanque during working hours.
The department spent £3,702 on ‘transport costs of those attending the event’ this summer, a freedom of information request showed.
Defra declined to reveal how many attended, but said it was ‘open to everyone’ at Defra – which had 13,165 staff as of this March.
One civil servant praised this year’s event in an X post deleted after the department was approached by this newspaper.
The campylobacter lab manager at the Animal and Plant Health Agency posted: ‘Sports Day really is the best of days.
A paid day of work to sit in a field, drink Pimm’s and play a few games of petanque.’ Defra policy states staff must agree ‘special leave arrangements’ to take part.
But it adds: ‘Given this is a corporate activity for those competing… and is a great opportunity for team building and networking, we understand many line managers won’t expect staff to use their annual leave.’
Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was spent bussing civil servants to a Defra sports day last year to ‘sit in a field and drink Pimm’s’
It comes after the Cabinet Office this year banned departments from funding ‘unnecessary’ staff ‘away days’ to ‘crack down on wasteful spending’.
Darwin Friend, head of research at TaxPayers’ Alliance, said taxpayers ‘will be left scratching their heads at why they’re footing the bill for mandarins to have a day out in the park’.
He added: ‘Of course, a bit of fresh air and exercise never hurt anyone, but while essential services are being squeezed, officials at one of Britain’s most bloated departments were off on a jolly.
‘Ministers need to take a long, hard, look at how Whitehall is spending public money.’
Civil servants took part in 12 categories including chess, darts and tug-of-war during the sports day held on July 4 from 10.30am to 5pm.
One of Defra’s director generals attended, and the acting permanent secretary – the most senior departmental official – attended at 5pm to ‘give out prizes’.
A south-west London sports club was hired at a cost of £2,160, funded by the Defra Sports and Social Association, which is not taxpayer funded.
The department added that all food and drink was paid for by civil servants.
A Defra spokesman said: ‘The Defra sports day is a longstanding tradition started decades ago.
‘It gives colleagues an opportunity to collaborate and network and helps motivate our workforce to deliver for the public.
‘Investing in staff wellbeing helps to drive better outcomes for the communities we serve.’
