Department of Energy and Climate Change spends over £70k on away days

Green Wise:

Energy Ministers have come under attack after spending tens of thousands of pounds on lavish away days to private members clubs, hotels and football grounds – and even going on one away day to plan another away day.

MP Luciana Berger, Labour’s Shadow Climate Change Minister, has criticised the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) chiefs for spending over £70,000 to pay for 1,800 civil servants to attend 42 of the so-called team and group away days.

One bill of over £1,286.40 was for meeting space less than two miles from DECC's Whitehall offices.

And on October 4 last year, civil servants paid £747 to hire the Institute for Government in Carlton Gardens to plan a second outing three days later.

Berger said: "It’s staggering that the same out of touch ministers who are putting thousands of people in the solar industry out of work are shelling out for lavish away days.

"Ministers need to explain why DECC is spending thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money paying for private members clubs, premiership football stadiums and lavish hotels. There was even an away day to plan for another away day. It shows David Cameron’s claim to wage a war on waste was pure fiction.

"If this level of spending has been replicated across Government the bill could be well over a million pounds. David Cameron should come clean and publish the details of every department’s away days."...