Free contraception could be extended to women over the age of 21 under plans being examined by the government – although a senior health official warned that following the UK in providing it to all ages would be “very expensive”.

Health policy director Ruth Johnson told the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel that a review of Jersey’s contraception services would look at whether reorganising them could free up enough money to extend access.

Women aged up to 21 can currently obtain free contraception through SAYJ (formerly Brook Jersey), she said. Officials have yet to decide what a higher age limit might be.

“One of the things that we think that we should probably be doing, and this will be set out in the women’s health strategy, is extending access to free contraception to women at a later age,” said Mrs Johnson.

She noted that some jurisdictions offer free contraception up to the age of 25, while the UK offers it regardless of age – which she described as “very expensive”.

“Whilst the UK provides free contraception to everybody, it also has quite high termination rates,” noted Mrs Johnson. “So there’s not necessarily a correlation between those things.”

The health policy director acknowledged that Jersey had no additional funding earmarked for an expansion.

“We can’t just pay for more free contraception,” she said. “We will be undertaking a wholesale review of all the contraception services at the moment.”

The women’s health strategy remains on track for publication by the end of this year. Mrs Johnson said a first draft had been prepared, with further feedback from those involved in its development expected in October ahead of publication in December.

Health Minister Tom Binet told the panel an implementation plan should accompany the strategy.

Mrs Johnson previously described Jersey’s existing contraception system as “a mess”.

“We have no single coherent offering for women,” she told a special scrutiny hearing dedicated to women’s health matters last year. “We are acutely aware of that.”

At that hearing, she revealed plans for a “single, simple, coherent contraception offering for all Islanders”.

“That does not necessarily mean that it will be free for all islanders, but we will certainly focus on good access to affordable contraception for the majority of women,” she added.