I am a strong advocate of lowering the voting age to 16. I look forward to a time when we have genuine cross-party consensus to give all 16 and 17 year olds across the United Kingdom the right to vote, and bring forward legislation to that effect.

Following significant discussions with local government and others and a formal consultation, the statement on 18 December by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government set out a simple way to clarify maintenance responsibilities for sustainable drainage systems, in response to Sir Michael Pitt’s recommendation. That comes into effect in April, but we will keep it under review. Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 remains available for implementation.

The information requested is not available.

The annual National Health Service General and Personal Medical Services workforce census, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, shows there were 36,294 full time equivalent general practitioners (GP’s) working and training in the NHS in England as at 30 September 2013. This is an increase of 1,051 compared to the position in September 2010, the most recent figures after the General Election. The next census, reflecting the position in September 2014 will be published in March 2015.

The Government’s mandate to Health Education England requires them to ensure that 50% of trainee doctors (currently 3,250 based on current forecasts) enter GP training programmes by 2016. This will enable further increases in the GP workforce across England.

Child benefit is paid for the welfare of the child/children in the household. If any partner in the household has income over £50,000 then they are required to register for the higher income child benefit charge regardless of whether or not they are the biological parent.

This approach withdraws child benefit from those on high incomes, while leaving the majority of claimants completely unaffected by the changes. Those families with at least one taxpayer with an income over £60,000 can choose not to receive the child benefit, which means that they do not have to pay the tax charge at all.

There are no national health service waiting time standards specifically for patients classified as “urgent”. It is the objective of this Government to ensure that all patients receive timely and high quality care.

Clinical priority is—and remains—the main determinant of when patients should be treated within existing waiting times targets.

High Speed 2 provides the opportunity to be a significant catalyst for locally-led growth and regeneration at proposed station locations, with the potential to support new homes and new jobs, benefiting from the new high-speed connections. This is illustrated by how High Speed 1 has helped extend regeneration and growth across East London and Kent. The Government will in due course be responding to the High Speed 2 Growth Taskforce Report on how best to work with local councils and Local Enterprise Partnerships to seize the regeneration opportunities from the new line.

This Government is a strong advocate of locally-led development. The Local Plan process helps councils shape where new development should and should not go. In that context, it does not make sense to exempt councils along the route from having an up to date Local Plan; councils should be in the driving seat to determine what it best for their local communities.

Our first priority is to collect money for children who will benefit from regular ongoing maintenance payments, rather than the pursuit of historic arrears in cases where the children have now grown up.

However, where arrears of child maintenance are linked to an ongoing child maintenance case on the 2012 scheme, we will move arrears in those cases to the Child Maintenance Service and pursue them as appropriate alongside the ongoing maintenance case.

In cases where the arrears are not linked to an ongoing 2012 case, and a parent with care does not request that their arrears are written off, we will transfer them to the Child Maintenance Service and pursue collection as resources allow.

Local councils are responsible for setting pedestrian crossing timings with reference to the guidance walking speed of 1.2 metres per second. The Department is conducting a review of traffic signing legislation, and once that is complete will consider the need to update the guidance.

Every area of the country needs more housing, and the views of local people are crucial in determining where and how those needs should be met, not least through local plans.

This is a matter for the Ministry of Justice.

They have no plans to introduce fees to bring an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (social security and child support).

The establishment of a parliamentary commission would be a matter for the two Houses. Should a motion to establish a commission be tabled in this House, the accounting officer is required under Standing Order No. 22C to provide an assessment of the financial implications. If a parliamentary commission were established, the funding and practical arrangements would then fall within the remit of the House of Commons Commission, advised by the Finance and Services Committee and others. Parliamentary commissions are relatively rare, and the implications will depend on the details of any specific proposal.

Fire and rescue authorities are best placed to assess and manage their services. They do that through integrated risk management planning. Thankfully, fire and rescue authorities now attend 46% fewer incidents than 10 years ago. They are certainly in the position to best allocate their resources according to local risk.

I refer the hon. Member to my reply to my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow) on 11 February 2014, Official Report, column 548W.

Published reoffending statistics show that, in the year to March 2012, 57.7% of prisoners serving sentences of less than 12 months reoffended within 12 months of release from custody, compared to 34.4% for prisoners released from sentences of 12 months or more. Overall, reoffending rates have barely changed over the last decade.

The National Audit Office (2010) report ‘Managing Offenders on Short Custodial Sentences’ estimated that the total cost to the economy of crime committed by short-sentenced offenders during 2007-08 was around £7 billion to £10 billion a year.

These figures make the case for reform very clear. Under our proposals in ‘Transforming Rehabilitation—A strategy for reform’, which we published in May 2013, we are extending supervision to short sentenced offenders and incentivising providers to reduce offending. The pilots in Peterborough and Doncaster have informed the new strategy, particularly in terms of working in partnership with providers from the private and voluntary sectors. According to interim reconviction data, these pilots show a fall in reoffending rates among the cohort of offenders covered by the scheme:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/276105/annex-a-payment-by-results-jan14.pdf)

Final results for the first pilot cohorts will be available later this year.