DoH saidTeenage girls will not be "forced" into having the contraceptive injection, the Department of Health said.
Responding to reports that girls as young as 13 will be made to take long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), a spokeswoman insisted the government's primary concern was only to ensure young people had access to effective birth control.
Following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the Sunday Telegraph, it emerged that a number of local authorities had received letters from the government encouraging them to get teenage girls to have the injections or implants.
Local authorities with particularly high rates of teenage pregnancy, including Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham, were told it was "essential" to increase the uptake of LARC amongst young girls.