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The number of teenage pregnancies is rising fastest in areas where the government has tried hardest to reduce it, according to campaigners.

A booklet from Family and Youth Concern calls for sex educators to "overcome their phobia about abstinence and their obsession with sexual expression".

The booklet's author, Valerie Riches, said that, despite the government's commitment to halve under-18 pregnancies by 2010, figures for 2001-2 show a 0.7 per cent increase.

But the increase is concentrated in areas where programmes have been set up to address the problem. Oxfordshire saw a rise of 7.3 per cent, Cornwall 16.4 per cent and Torbay 22.4 per cent.

- Sex or Indoctrination from www.famyouth.org.uk