Teen pregnancies hit record low as sex education drive pays off

The fall in pregnancies was welcomed by campaigners including Shereece Marcantonio, who lobbied David Cameron to overhaul sex and relationship lessons by getting young people instead of teachers to educate fellow pupils.

Ms Marcantonio, who lives in Newham, has two older sisters and a brother who became teen parents. “The figures are amazing,” she said. “We’ve still got a long way to go but people are paying more attention to sex education, and talking about safe sex is becoming less and less of a taboo. Education should be done on a peer to peer basis.”

A number of boroughs have adopted the C Card scheme, which gives young people access to free condoms. More than 50,000 condoms have been handed out in London in the last year.

More GPs and nurses are being trained to fit long-acting reversible contraception, and uptake of implants and injections has increased in the capital.

Dr Simon Tanner, director of public health at NHS London, said teen pregnancy figures could even fall below the national average if the downward trend continues: “We have improved access to sexual health services at further education colleges, working with young people to understand what they need,” he added.

Brook, the sexual health advisory service, said: “We know what works to improve young people’s sexual health and wellbeing — providing easy access to services, education and information. The decline in teenage pregnancy rates shows what can happen when these elements are all in place.” Havering achieved the greatest decrease, from 44 to 23 teenage pregnancies, or 47 per cent in one year. However, Croydon, Redbridge and Merton saw a small increase.

• An earlier version of this article listed Newham and Lambeth as having the highest teenage pregnancy rates according to latest statistics. In fact this is not the case.