To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government has taken to reduce teenage pregnancy rates since 1997. (191905)

The Teenage Pregnancy Strategy was launched in 1999 and included:

the establishment of a media campaign aimed at 13 to 17-year-olds;

measures to improve the quality of sex and relationships education (SRE) in schools;

measures to improve sexually active young people’s access to contraceptive and sexual health services;

support for parents to talk to their children about sex and relationship issues; and

additional support to help teenage parents and their children achieve better outcomes.

Between 1998 (the baseline year for the Strategy) and 2006 (the latest year for which data are available), the under-18 conception rate has fallen by 13.3 per cent. to its lowest level for over 20 years. The under-16 rate has fallen by 13.0 per cent. over the same period.

As well as giving young people the ‘means’ to avoid teenage pregnancies, we are also tackling the underlying factors that increase their risk of teenage pregnancy—low attainment, poverty, early disengagement from learning and low aspirations—through the Every Child Matters reforms.