Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date his Department first identified evidence that historic taxpayer funding had not been returned by Southeastern railway.

In Spring 2021, officials became aware of the most material matters, that LSER had concealed over £25m of taxpayer funding due back to the Department. Due to the complexity of the issues involved we took action as soon as reasonably practical with investigations still on-going.