To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has commissioned recent research on a potential link between spending on community contraception services and the abortion rate per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 years; how much each primary care trust spent on community contraception services in the last 12 months; what the abortion rate per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 years was in each primary care trust in each of the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. (313659)

The Department has not commissioned any research on the potential link between spending on community contraceptive services and abortion rates. However, the Government's significant additional funding over the past two years to improve women's access to contraception has contributed to a decrease in abortion rates: the abortion rate for women resident in England and Wales fell by 1.7 per cent, between 2007 and 2008 and by a further 4.6 per cent, in the first six months of 2009.

Information on spending on community contraceptive services by primary care trust (PCT) is not available centrally.

Information on the abortion rate per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 years by PCT for each month in 2008 has been placed in the Library. The 2009 annual abortion data will be published on 25 May 2010.