HEALTH officials have faced criticism for organizing an expensive away day event at the luxurious Oval cricket ground, located just a short distance from their Whitehall headquarters.

Department of Health staff spent £3,150 on hiring a function room for a “professional development day” in September last year.

Their head office is only a mile-and-a-half away over the River Thames in Whitehall.

Sources said they did not watch a cricket match.

William Yarwood, the media campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, commented: “It’s perplexing to taxpayers that officials considered it justifiable to spend more than £3,000 on an away day held so close to their offices.

“Even if no cricket was watched, there’s no excuse for this kind of wasteful spending when budgets are tight.

“While it was a good move by the government to restrict the use of government credit cards, there must be continued diligence to ensure civil servants don’t fall back into previous practices.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Since this spending occurred, we have restricted spending on away days at external venues and all departments and public bodies have been told to freeze nearly all government credit cards, with tough new rules introduced for civil servants looking to reapply.”