1. In Blockchain.info I have been provided with a 12-word recovery phase, is this bespoke to recovering bitcoin from Blockchain.info only or can this phrase be used to recover my Bitcoin via an alternate service in the case that Blockchain.info disappear?
You can use this 12-word seed to recover in any wallet(desktop/mobile/web) as long they are compatible in importing 12-word seed. Best choice is electrum desktop wallet.
2. To pull my bitcoin out of blockchain I understand that I need the private key. Does anybody know how to extract it from this site? I have searched but just cannot find it.
You have researched but you don't find it? better to search again, there are many tutorials out there, you only have to search the proper keyword on google. Anyway here's my tutorial about it here on my
site.
3. Once I have the private key, is it possible to create both a paper and a hardware wallet or can you only choose one?
Most probably on the paper wallet but on hardware wallet don't think so, since every hardware wallet has its own format, numbers of words on its seed, and sometimes different format of its private keys.
4. When you move coin from a web wallet to a paper/hardware wallet should you be paying commission for this move or is it free?
Yes, its free only for paper wallet not on HW as what I said above, you can use this site for it
https://www.bitaddress.org/ I assure you that it's safe there just download the whole site or get a clone on its Github repo and run it offline.