The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) - responsible for Her Majesty's Court Service - plans to introduce a home computing initiative and childcare vouchers for its 24,000 employees.

Although subject to approval by the DCA's project board, a survey carried out by the department found many staff would be interested in the benefits.

The DCA was set up last year to bring together all magistrates' courts into a single organisation. This has enabled the DCA to offer benefits across the courts for the first time.

As magistrates' courts could previously offer their own benefits, a number of the department's staff now have different terms and conditions. The DCA is currently in the process of trying to harmonise the terms and conditions of its staff.

Hilary McCann, the DCA's benefits project manager, said: "We have approximately 24,000 staff with more than 43 different sets of terms and conditions. We hope [the schemes are] something that will be popular."

McCann added that none of the magistrates' courts previously offered a HCI scheme or childcare vouchers.

It has not been decided whether staff will receive a flexible benefits allowance or pay for the benefits out of their salary.