§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Chief Medical Officer will, as requested by St George's Hospital Medical School, revise the January 2003 Chief Medical Officer's update 35 relating to evidence to support the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, in order to reflect the successes of abstinence education [HL2492]
§ Baroness AndrewsThe position expressed with regard to abstinence education in the Chief Medical Officer's update is informed by high quality reviews of the international evidence. The most recent of these (Swann, C, Bowe, K, McCormick, G and Kosmin, M (2003)Evidence-Based briefing paper on teenage pregnancy and parenthood. Health Development Agency) considered the evidence from all high quality systematic and other reviews and meta-analyses published since 1996. Their findings reinforced the evidence base for the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. They concluded that "on the whole, our findings indicate that abstinence approaches (despite heavy funding provision in the US) do not work". There is therefore no basis on which to revise the January 2003 Chief Medical Officer's Update 35.