Pupils: Contraception

(asked on 21st March 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he publish the names of schools that allow emergency contraception to be distributed to children at that school without parental knowledge or consent.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 29th March 2019

Information on schools where emergency contraception is provided by healthcare professionals is not collected centrally.

Advice to healthcare professionals on the provision of emergency contraception to girls under the age of 16 is contained in recommendation 5 of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) public health guideline on sexually transmitted infections and under-18 conceptions prevention and recommendation 9 of the NICE public health guideline on contraceptive services for under 25s. The guidelines can be viewed on the NICE website at the following links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph3/chapter/1-Recommendations

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph51/chapter/1-Recommendations

In addition, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) has published clinical guidance for health professional on the use of emergency contraception, which is available on the FSRH website at the following link:

https://www.fsrh.org/documents/ceu-clinical-guidance-emergency-contraception-march-2017

Young people under the age of 16 are legally able to consent to medical advice and treatment, without their parents’ knowledge or consent if a doctor or other healthcare worker judges them competent to do so. Healthcare professionals providing emergency contraception to under 16s without parental consent should follow the criteria outlined in the Fraser guidelines for competence to consent.

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