A new legal centre employing around 300 staff is set to be created in Birmingham as part of a £1 billion modernisation of the court service.

The Government has announced plans to create two Courts & Tribunals Service Centres which will bring together expertise in managing court and tribunal cases.

The Birmingham base will be housed in an existing court service building in Hagley Road while a second centre will open in Stoke-on-Trent, with each employing around 300 staff.

Many of the roles are due to be taken up by existing court service employees.

The Ministry of Justice said it was trying to make justice simpler and swifter by bringing more services online and making courts and tribunals easier to access.

Members of the public will be able to access services such as applying for a divorce, making a benefit appeal and entering a plea for a speeding offence.

The two centres will also combine and share best practice and knowledge and are due to open in 2019.

Justice minister Dominic Raab said: "These new administrative centres will make sure we deliver better services for those using the courts system while delivering better bang for the taxpayers' buck.

Search for public sector jobs in the West Midlands with Fish4Jobs

"The move is part of our £1 billion reform programme to digitise the justice system - making it more sensitive for witnesses, more convenient for other users and better value for public money."

Last year, HM Courts & Tribunals Service dealt with more than 4.1 million criminal, civil, family and tribunal cases.

The service said that, as more centres opened, many of the enquiries relating to these cases would be channelled through the new Courts & Tribunals Service Centres.

The £1 billion investment is made up of £855 million to modernise and digitise the courts and £240 million to deliver a fully connected criminal courtroom.

The court service said it was also changing the way it collected fines to make it faster and more effective as its staff were currently "hampered by a system which was created in 1989", it said in a statement.

"The new operating model will improve efficiency, reduce delays and increase the amount of fines collected," it added.

"At present, staff are spread out in over 50 bases across the country - we will consolidate all of their knowledge and expertise by moving them into three."