 Plans to lower the age of consent to 15 from the Faculty of Public Health president, Professor John Ashton, were rejected by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in 2013.Research by Jean Golding shows that puberty is occurring earlier than in the 1970s, with an average age of menarche in girls now at 12 years and 10 months, compared to the average age of 14 for puberty in general that was accepted as evidence by the Policy Advisory Committee of the 1970s.Golding's research has found that "one girl in six hits puberty at the age of eight".