Written questions by Maskell.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to review the (a) distribution and (b) quantum of local government funding.

Future local authority funding decisions will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement.We understand that improving how local government is funded is crucial to enabling councils to deliver for local residents and ensuring we can deliver our missions. We will provide councils with more stability and certainty through multi-year funding settlements and by ending wasteful competitive bidding. This will ensure councils can plan their finances for the future properly, delivering better value for money for taxpayers.We want to hear from councils about the financial challenges they are facing and we are committed to improving the local government finance landscape in this Parliament.

If she plans to implement the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children's Social Care.

The department is committed to helping children thrive and wants the best for every child and family.Reforming children’s social care (CSC) is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve. It is also necessary to achieve financial stability for local authorities.That is why the government commits to working in partnership with local government to continue the work to reform CSC. The department will build on the foundations already laid by dedicated social care professionals and go further to deliver a social care system that works for everyone.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a humanitarian visa for people from Gaza to receive medical aid in the UK.

Currently, those seeking to come to the UK for private medical treatment, along with their family members, can apply for a visitor visa and consideration will be given to compelling, compassionate and exceptional circumstances.The Word Heath Organisation (WHO) position is that people who are medically evacuated should stay as close to home as possible, so that they are likely amongst those who understand their language and culture, and so that their return home, when ready, is easier. The Government will be reviewing the current arrangements as quickly as possible to ensure that, where it is appropriate for children to travel, this route is effective.

If he will introduce training bonds for overseas dentists to work in the NHS for a fixed period.

The Government has no plans to enforce or incentivise overseas dentists specifically to work in the National Health Service.The General Dental Council (GDC) has opened tendering for provision of Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) Part 1 and Part 2 for the next five years, looking to improve flexibility and availability to the ORE for overseas-dentists. The GDC expanded ORE capacity by 1300 places in 2023-2024.On 23 May a consultation for a ‘tie-in’ to NHS dentistry for graduate dentists was published. The consultation closed on 18 July. We will consider responses to the consultation and will set out the Government’s position on the proposal in due course.This Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.