London, Jan 3 (ANI): Lewisham district in south London has gained infamy after new Government data revealed that one in 62 girls under 16 fall pregnant in the area.

According to the latest figures, every day 22 girls aged 15 or under fall pregnant. While 13 of these are likely to have an abortion, nine give birth in teenage. The statistics also disclose that one girl aged 13 or under falls pregnant each day.

Although, London showed the worst figures for teenage pregnancy, the cases are on a decline.

But in six of the other seven regions of England more teens are falling pregnant than four years ago.

The North East has the worst rates with 10.3 out of every 1,000 under-16 girls getting pregnant.

The overall rate for England and Wales is eight.

“It is now quite clear that the Government’s teenage pregnancy strategy has failed,” the Daily Express quoted Professor David Paton, an economist based at the Nottingham University Business School, as saying.

“It is somewhat odd that in response to this failure, they have decided to spend even more money on these same policies, despite the wide range of scientific evidence suggesting that such policies have little or no impact.”

He added: “The geographical breakdown tells the real story - areas with high levels of unemployment, family breakdown, poor schools and low aspirations have higher rates of underage conceptions.

“There is no doubt that these are the factors explaining why teenagers get pregnant and not lack of knowledge about sex or contraception services.”

However, the Government believes its policies have brought about a difference.

Children’s Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “We are supporting everyone to play their part by providing an additional 20.5million pounds to improve access to contraception, and offering more support for parents to help them talk openly to their children about sex and relationships.

“We have also recently announced that sex and relationship education will be statutory from 2011. This will provide young people with age-appropriate information so that they can make the right choices about when to start having sex.”

She added: “I am very encouraged that both the under-16 and under-18 conception rates for 2008 continue to fall compared to the same quarter in 2007.

“This shows the success of our teenage pregnancy strategy which is giving young people the knowledge and confidence to resist pressure to have early sex, and to prevent early pregnancy when they do become sexually active.” (ANI)