Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what independent verification his Department uses to assess the accuracy of information provided by Govia Thameslink Railway to his Department when assessing claims for force majeure.

The Department’s team assessing the claim includes resources with specialist knowledge of the industry operations and systems. Additionally, the force majeure guidance mandates that operators provide clear evidence that disruption was as a result of the event in question. The overall assessment is being peer-reviewed internally to provide consistency with industry guidance and any precedents from previous claims. This assessment approach follows previous Department for Transport practice when dealing with force majeure claims.