Pregnancies among under-16s have fallen to the lowest level for 11 years, from 7,903 in 2001 to 7,875 in 2002, and the rate fell from 8 per 1,000 girls to 7.9, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Caroline Davey, policy manager at charity fpa, said the drop in the under-16 rate was "encouraging and shows the teenage pregnancy strategy is working".
Critics, including the Conservative Party and some newspapers, seized on a 3.2 per cent rise among 16-year-olds in England and Wales as evidence of failure. But, Davey pointed out that since 1998, when the strategy was introduced, the overall number of pregnancies among under-18s had fallen by almost 10 per cent.
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