Fury as dozens of civil servants enjoy £1,120 pottery painting session at taxpayer’s expense
DOZENS of civil servants enjoyed a pottery painting session at taxpayers’ expense.
A group of 35 took part in the ceramics task on a £1,120 team building training course, secret government papers show.
Details of the pottery activity emerged after the documents were accidentally posted online.
They also show that £965 was spent on a height-adjustable desk.
And one civil servant forked out £1,998 on upgrading his video conferencing technology with a new sound system.
The dossier, covering seven months to May, was uploaded by attorney-general Suella Braverman’s office and remained online for a week.
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Ms Braverman, the government’s chief law officer, has been leading the Tory charge against woke civil servants wasting taxpayers’ cash.
Just this month, Ms Braverman, who was in the race to be the next PM, vowed to prevent Whitehall mandarins from splurging on diversity and inclusion officers.
Labour hit out at Ms Braverman and her department over the expense.
Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said: “I don’t know what’s worse, the attorney-general breaching her own data protection rules by mistake or her civil servants spending their working days painting pottery.
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“Either way, it’s yet more evidence of a zombie government, lurching aimlessly from one calamity to the next.”
Government sources last night insisted that the ceramics session was just one part of a day focussed on legal learning which included team building exercises.