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Contraception - emergency - Management
What legal issues relate to providing contraception to young people?

  • Consent to sexual activity
    • The legal age of consent to sexual activity is 16 years in Scotland, England and Wales, and 17 years in in Northern Ireland.
    • Sexual activity under the age of consent is an offence even if consensual.
    • Offences are considered more serious (statutory rape) when the person is less than 13 years old [FFPRHC, 2004a].
  • Consent to medical treatment
    • In the UK, people over the age of 16 years are presumed to be competent to consent to medical treatment. In contrast, competence to consent to medical treatment must be demonstrated in children under the age of 16 years [FFPRHC, 2004a].
    • In England and Wales, it is lawful to provide contraceptive advice and treatment to young people without parental consent, provided that the practitioner is satisfied that the Fraser criteria for competence are met [Teenage Pregnancy Unit, 2001; FFPRHC, 2004a; Wheeler, 2006]. The criteria are that:
      • The young person understands the practitioner's advice.
      • The young person cannot be persuaded to inform their parents, or will not allow the practitioner to inform the parents, that contraceptive advice has been sought.
      • The young person is likely to begin or to continue having intercourse with or without contraceptive treatment.
      • Unless she receives contraceptive advice or treatment, the young person's physical or mental health (or both) are likely to suffer.
      • The young person's best interest requires the practitioner to give contraceptive advice or treatment (or both) without parental consent.
    • In Scotland, statutory provision by way of The Age of Legal Capacity Act 1991 applies similar criteria. The Act actually appears to assign more legal rights to children under 16 years, in that parental responsibility cannot authorise procedures a competent child has refused [Sterrick, 2006; Wheeler, 2006].

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