evidence: Rates of teenage pregnancy in the UK have halved in the past two decades and are now at their lowest levels since record-keeping began in the late 1960s. It is a dramatic turnaround: in 1998, England had one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in western Europe. Last week, the Office for National Statistics released data revealing the fall in the conception rate among females aged 15 to 19 as the standout success story in the public health field: just 14.5 per 1,000 births were to women in their teens, with drops in all age groups under 25. [...] The teenage conception rate in England still remains higher than a number of other western European countries, however, and reductions at council level vary from 30% to 70% – including stark differences between areas with similar demographics.Lisa Fontanelle, 20, has been a peer mentor for the sexual health charity Brook since she was 14. "I’ve mentored young people all over the country and I see differences in conception rates that have nothing to do with deprivation and inequality," she said. "The biggest reasons are cultural, lack of education and stigma: people still think that if you give young people sex and relationship education, they’re going to go crazy.