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A new study claims that sex education and handing out contraception to youngsters hardly has any impact in controlling teenage pregnancy rates.

David Paton, professor of industrial economics at Nottingham University, says that under 16 pregnancies have remained virtually constant for the last 40 years (between 1969 and 2009) and that unwanted pregnancies are "remarkably resilient to policy initiatives." He said that fluctuations have taken place, but that weren't as a result of national efforts taken to bring it down.

However, there is a disagreement to his findings among family planning groups who argue that the findings show that the initiatives do work if given time. 

Since 2009, there have been drops in the rate of teenage pregnancies and is now at its lowest since the end of the 60s. And according to the study, all the credit should be given to the liberal approach adopted by the governments.

"Millions of pounds have been spent by policymakers on numerous initiatives aimed at cutting teenage pregnancy rates," Paton wrote in the journal Education and Health. "However, identifying the impact of policy interventions ... presents something of a challenge."

Paton affirms that there was hardly any difference in the rates of pregnancies in girls under 16-years-old since 1969, with a difference of about seven and 10 per 1,000 per year.

The rate was at its peak (above nine) three times: in the mid 1970s, the early 1990s and again in 1996. Since then there has been a general if bumpy decline, The Telegraph reported.

In the year 1996, initiatives were taken by the government to cut sexually transmitted infections and unwanted teen pregnancies, and in spite of that, the year saw one of the peak teenage pregnancy rates, Paton argued.

"Unwanted pregnancy among minors in England and Wales has proved remarkably resilient to policy initiatives," Paton wrote.

Paton adds that the focus should be on "reducing the level of underage sexual activity."

Reductions in the early 1990s, caused by better services for young people, were only undone by a 1995 health scare about the contraceptive pill, said a spokesman for Brook, the sexual health charity.

She further states that the Netherlands had the lowest teen pregnancy rate in Europe because the Dutch have "an open and accepting attitude towards teenage sexuality, widely available information and sex education, and easy access to confidential contraceptive services," the report said.