NEWS

SPARTA are pleased to announce that the SPARTA Personal Safety Course will start again on 27th January 2026. Stay Safe this winter with SPARTA’s Personal Safety class Stay safe this winter with the help of SPARTA. SPARTA are proud to announce that following the running of the very popular Personal Safety class in early 2025 we are repeating the course in early 2026. The course will run on Tuesdays for a period of 8 weeks starting on 27 January 2026 . It is provided by Stay Sa

The Civil Service Choir – looking ahead to 2026!   The Civil Service Choir had a busy end to 2025. They performed Orff’s Carmina Burana with its famous O Fortuna  opening at Holy Trinity, dazzled guests at the Civil Service Awards ceremony, and held two Christmas concerts locally in Westminster.   Performing at the Civil Service awards As we look ahead to 2026, the choir will be joined by the Brandenburg Sinfonia orchestra as they perform Haydn’s The Creation on the evening o

The SPARTA History Society has a varied programme of talks with leading historians from major universities covering Ancient Rome, English Civil War, How World War Two is remembered and the Global Middle Ages. Wed 14 th January The Blood in Winter: A Nation Descends, 1642 - Jonathan Healey                Online Talk from GMH 5.7 1pm In 1642, England fell into Civil War. Before this epoch-making collapse, there was a political crisis in the winter of 1641 that saw King Charles

Here is a Christmas message from the SPARTA Leeds Running group Firstly, we wanted to say thank you to everyone who got involved with the club in 2025. It’s great to have established a small running community in the Leeds office and we’re looking forward to doing even more next year.    As some of you will already know, we’ve moved to having a monthly “official” run now, which takes place at 12:15 on the first Tuesday of every month. We’ll refresh the invites to these in the

SPARTA is pleased to announce that we have booked a date and ground for the 2026 SPARTA Sport and Wellbeing Day. Date - 24th July 2026 Location - We are returning to Imber Court Sports Ground, near Hampton Court. The location is only an extra 5 minute journey compared to the journey to the Kings House Sports Ground. We are really looking forward to welcoming you all to a day of fun and wellbeing in July. If you are interested in volunteering to help on the day then we would l

Last year over 35,000 people joined in CSSC's Active Wellbeing Challenges. The challenges start again in February 2026. Can you and/or your team combine to walk/run/swim enough miles to go round the world? The challenges are fun but also inclusive and completing them will give you an enormous amount of satisfaction. Why not sign up and use their challenges to help increase your health and wellbeing in 2026. Make it part of your everyday wellbeing package. Check out the CSSC w

SPARTA are pleased to announce the publication of the SPARTA Annual Report 2025. The front cover features a picture of the Swinging Mandarins band playing at the 2025 Sport and Wellbeing Day. The report gives a run down of the many activities that SPARTA has helped to put on throughout the year. You can download the report using the link below. We hope that you all like the report. If you wish to send us any comments then please do contact us at SPARTA@dft.gov.uk

The Drama club, the St James's and Westminster Players, are busy preparing for the autumn scene with auditions and productions in the...

The SPARTA Golf Society report from their Autumn meeting which was held at Ealing Golf Club. After torrential rain the day before, the sun shone brightly throughout the day of their Autumn meeting. Two guests from the Home Office Golf Society were invited along to enjoy the day but the rules did not allow them to take away any trophies, however one was awarded some golf balls for the best Stableford score on the day. Unusually for the SPARTA Golf Society, the venue was some w

This summer the Civil Service Choir celebrated their 200th performance with a programme of swing and jazz favourites with a choral twist, accompanied by a professional jazz orchestra. Following their 200th performance this summer, the Civil Service Choir is preparing for a busy autumn/winter season. They’ve got a busy schedule for the remainder of the year, performing Carmina Burana with its famous O’Fortuna opening on 22nd November 2025, their annual lunchtime carol service

During 2025 the SPARTA History Society has organised 40 events, 37 talks and 3 walks, the most it has ever achieved. During 2025 it has also helped the Department for Transport to celebrate Railway 200, the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. organising 16 Railway 200 talks, 1 walk and members have organised events in Leeds Office and in September in Great Minster House put on a display of railway items in reception, alongside archive images from Histor

The SPARTA Art club have been hosting Watercolour sessions, organised by John (MHCLG), Ahad (MHCLG) and Aishwaree (DfT). The sessions have involved familiarising with water consistency and learning watercolour techniques before painting their own creation to take home. The sessions have proved to be very popular and were quickly totally booked up, (almost as quickly as Oasis tickets). The club is hoping to continue to run similar sessions going forward and also to explore way

At SPARTA we are always trying to make a difference by improving what we can offer you but to do that we need your help. Volunteers Our clubs are run by volunteers. They help at the clubs because they enjoy the particular activity that their club does. Without their help their club would struggle to continue operating. Some of our volunteers have been doing their work at the clubs for a long time and they need your help to ensure that the clubs continue to operate and develop

GOLF, GOOD, COME, JOIN . Golf is good. Come and join in!! This year the SPARTA Golf Society has made changes to its event and competition...

The SPARTA Art Club has organised some watercolour classes, the first of which is taking place at the end of September. Since they...

The fledgling SPARTA Astronomy Society has launched and cleared the tower!  So far we’ve 10 members and we are looking for more.  The...

The SPARTA Sport and Wellbeing Day 2025 took place on 18th July 2025. Teams and participants from locations across the country from both...

Just over two years ago Ben and Dave wrote to SPARTA and suggested that we needed a board games club. SPARTA agreed and now we now have...

During 2025 the SPARTA history Society has organised a number of online and in person talks in London and Leeds, these continue in...

The Civil Service 10km and 5km races took place on 16th April 2025 in Battersea Park. There was a good turnout from the SPARTA runners from both DfT and MHCLG. I am pleased to report that the 10km race was won once again by Jack Millar in a time of 30 minutes and 56 seconds. He has won the race for the last few years and says that this is an event that he loves to run in each year. A few days later Jack competed in the London Marathon running an excellent time of 2 hours 24 m