A SEXUAL health charity is offering free pregnancy tests to people in Yorkshire after new figures showed many do not protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

Marie Stopes International is offering the tests after a survey showed 42 per cent of people in Yorkshire and the Humber who have had sex in the last 12 months have not used protection.

The poll of more than 4,000 adults in Britain showed that 86 per cent of people in Yorkshire and the Humber who had unprotected sex think they are very unlikely to contract an STI and 80 percent think it is very unlikely they would fall pregnant.

Tracey McNeill, the senior vice president of Marie Stopes UK said people underestimate the risks they are taking.