Civil servants were given a £2,000 lesson in juggling and building a miniature railway on a taxpayer-funded away day.
Labour tonight branded the spending by the Department for Transport a “waste” while rail fares soar.
Spending records show the department paid £2,074.28 to Zing Events as part of a 38-person “team away day” - part of £18,000 spent on team-building days last winter.
The company did not run the whole away day but handles 60-minute icebreaking sessions to “energise” conferences and stop “death by powerpoint”.
DfT staff spent 20 minutes doing Group Juggling, which teaches people “how to juggle as one team passing the juggling ball onto the next person while receiving a juggling ball from your other side.”
Another 20 minutes were spent on the Mini Mexican Railway, where “pairs must construct a contraption that can carry a ball from one end of the room to the other”.
Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “As taxpayers count the cost of 15 Tory tax rises and passengers face brutal fare hikes, ministers have been splashing public cash on ludicrous activities.
“Instead of wasting taxpayers’ cash on absurd days out, the Transport Secretary could try doing his job and tackle the soaring cost of travel facing millions.
“It’s always the public who pick up the tab for Tory waste.”
Labour said the spending, first reported by i News, was part of a string of “away days” last winter that cost more than £18,000.
Others included £2,700 to a firm called Mind Gym which offers ‘Psychology Based Organisational Transformation’.
Government officials stressed most employers across the country use third-party companies to conduct ice-breaking and team-building.
The icebreakers were part of a wider training day for professional development.
A DfT spokesperson said: “We value our staff and recognise the importance training days can have in helping our employees develop new skills.
“We’re constantly striving to reduce our administration costs and venues are chosen with this in mind.”
