Abortions by women under the age of 20 also jumped, from 165 in 2005 to 175 last year.

But the level in Tayside as a whole dropped over the period, bucking the national trend.

The region saw its level drop from 1241 in 2005 to 1190, as national figures showed abortions rise by about 500 to just over 13,000.

Tayside registered at 5th in the overall table, with Greater Glasgow, Lothian, Lanarkshire and Grampian all seeing more abortions than the region.

In Fife, the level rose slightly from 801 in 2005 to 859 last year.

The number in Dundee jumped to 591, a rate of 18.9 per 1000 women aged 15 to 44 — well above the national rate of 12.4 per 1000.

The city has long had a reputation as Scotland’s capital for gymslip mums.

It has had a consistently far higher teenage conception rate than other areas of Tayside and Scotland as a whole.

At the end of 2005, Dundee’s teen pregnancy rates were shown to be as high as they were around a decade ago.

Dr Drew Walker, NHS Tayside director of public health, admitted the Dundee statistics posed a cause for concern.

He said, “Overall the figures for Tayside have come down a little, but, unfortunately, the figures for Dundee have increased slightly.

“This is a continuing cause for concern for all of us and it is a statistic I’d like to see coming down.

“We have a number of projects under way in Dundee and Tayside which are aimed at reducing the rate of terminations and improving sexual health overall.

“In partnership with our local authority colleagues we are continuing to develop programmes which will improve sexual health and relationship education.

“We are also improving access to emergency hormonal contraceptives, which are particularly targeted at the 16 to 25 age group — the group with the highest rate of terminations.

“The work of the Web Project with young people in deprived areas, particularly in Dundee, also aims to improve sexual health.

“There is also work being done with the Healthy Living Initiative to support parents, many of whom find it difficult to talk to their children about sexual health.

“We have recently launched the Tayside Sexual Health website, which provides information on services and issues which people might want to consider when thinking about their own sexual health.

“Our Cool to Talk website also continues to provide advice to young people.”

CANCER TIMES

Meanwhile, NHS Tayside was today revealed as one of the Scottish authorities which has failed to meet a target for reducing cancer treatment waiting times, but the board claimed it was making progress.

A spokesperson for the regional health authority also said the use of “availability status codes” — which health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has demanded be abolished by the end of the year — was being slashed.

The statistics were unveiled as the Scottish Executive published the latest waiting times for health boards across the country.

Previous health minister Andy Kerr said in December he wanted 95% of cancer patients receiving treatment within two months of urgent referral by their doctor.

NHS Tayside is currently treating nearly 90% within the target, according to the latest data.

The spokesperson claimed NHS Tayside was third best in the national league, behind only Dumfries and Galloway and the Shetland Islands.

She also said the use of ASCs was being driven down. Of the 16,243 outpatients presently on a waiting list in Tayside, 1069 have an ASC. Another 1833 of the 5460 registered for inpatient day care have one of the codes.

ASCs are applied to patients who fail to show up for an appointment or who cannot be treated due to other medical issues.

NHS Tayside Chief operating officer Gerry Marr said the board was hopeful it would meet Ms Sturgeon’s demands.

Ms Sturgeon said trouble-shooters will be sent to the two health boards with the worst waiting times for cancer treatment — Lanarkshire and Lothian.