A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We are launching an awareness campaign on March 14 to help tackle rape by educating young men about the need to gain consent before having sex."

The campaign will begin with two radio advertisements, followed on March 20 with magazine advertisements and posters in men's washrooms in urban pubs and clubs, the spokeswoman said.

She said the issue of consent was central to the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which stated that a person must agree to sex by choice and have the freedom and capacity to make a choice.

Solicitor General Mike O'Brien said the Home Office was also considering a change in the rape laws to require juries to decide whether a woman who had consumed alcohol was too drunk to give her consent.

In an interview for BBC Radio 4's File On Four, broadcast in part on Tuesday's Today programme, Mr O'Brien said that redrafting the law would stop cases being thrown out by judges and increase the number of convictions.

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