A Sussex Police trip to San Francisco is to be highlighted in a book criticising "wasteful and useless" schemes.

The Taxpayers' Alliance, a group that campaigns against excessive spending by central and local government, is publishing details of the trip in The Bumper Book of Government Waste, later this month.

The force came under fire last May when it sent Sergeant Mark Andrews and community liaison officer Lisa Timmerick to the city to learn how US police deal with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Brighton and Hove's chief superintendent Paul Curtis defended the six-week £5,000 trip after it was labelled a "jolly" by Conservative councillors.

He said the jaunt had not been funded by the taxpayer and the bulk of the money was from a bursary won by Sussex Police in a national competition as a result of its outstanding work around diversity issues.

The book also features the £77,000 it cost the Arts Council to send a team of artists to the North Pole to build a snowman.

Kingston Prison in Portsmouth, which hired a pagan priest at £11.56 an hour to give guidance to three inmates who converted to the religion while serving life sentences, is also listed.

Matthew Elliott, one of the authors of the report, said the total amount wasted comes to £80 billion a year.