The decision meant they could "not be used in the UK".

The procurement, made to bolster police forces in light of last summer's riots, is a further embarrassment to the Home Office already reeling under the Olympic security and Border Agency shambles.

The accounts for the year ended March 2012 do not reveal what happened to the wasted order – but a Home Office spokesman said they were most likely used for training.

The payment was part of more than £806,000 needlessly spent under the "Fruitless payment" section which also included a botched property transaction.

The section of the report describes them as "payments for which liability ought not to have been incurred or where the demand for the goods or services in question could have been cancelled in time to avoid liability".

Examples are said to include "forfeitures under contracts as a result of some error or negligence by the department, for example, goods or services wrongly ordered or accepted".

It goes on to read: "A fruitless payment of £427,000 was made for baton rounds that passed testing in the country of manufacture but not in the UK.

"This meant they could not be used in the UK."

The news was met with yet more criticism especially as the police and the rest of the Home Office are facing cut backs.

David Hanson MP, Labour's Shadow Policing Minister, said: "The level of incompetence demonstrated in wasting £427,000 of taxpayers' money on rubber bullets without thinking to check whether they meet UK safety standards is frankly breathtaking.

"The Home Office is lurching from one shambles to the next on an almost daily basis, with an utter lack of effective leadership from Government.

"What will concern people most is that the Home Secretary is either unwilling or unable to get a grip on her department to deal with these failures."

The news comes as the Home Office is struggling with the G4S security fiasco and its UK Border Agency is trying to cope with queues at airports such as Heathrow.

It is also the latest in a long line of procurement gaffes by Whitehall officials with the Ministry of Defence and Department of Health in particular wasting billions on botched purchases.

The situation has become so bad that the government last month announced it was considering bringing in the private sector, maybe even foreign firms, to take over the responsibility.

The latest accounts also reveal that the Home Office is expected to spend £11.2 million renovating a grade 1 listed used as a training centre for police.

The money was spent on renovating the Jacobean mansion in Hampshire which since 1960 has been the home of the Police Staff College.

A reports also calculates that the summer riots could cost nearly £100 million to the Home Office in damages mostly in property claims.