TEENAGE pregnancy rates in the South East are the lowest since records began in 1969, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

Conception rates for women aged 15 to 17 in the South East were 15 per 1,000 in 2016, a 12 per cent fall since 2015, and a 60 per cent drop since 1998.

Isolated to Surrey, this conception rate drops to 11.2 per 1,000 in 2016, a four per cent fall since 2015. And in Waverley, the rate drops to 6.7 per 1,000, an 18 per cent fall.

Natika H Halil, chief executive of the national sexual health charity FPA, welcomed the “dramatic fall” in teenage pregnancy rates in the South East, thanking “a great deal of hard work from health and education professionals”, along with the investment in services during the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy that ended in 2010.

However, she expressed concern at the “massive cuts” to local authority public health budgets in the region, warning it could see teenage pregnancy rates rise again in coming years.