The justice minister has been urged to provide extra space at HMP Birmingham to cope with the rising number of sex offenders being sent there.

The Independent Monitoring Board said the jail was struggling to cope with more historical sex offence cases being solved, a rise in internet pornography convictions and more rape prosecutions.

It has now written to Chris Grayling asking for him to investigate urgently.

The Prison Service said the report would be "fully considered".

In its report, the board said the prison was "experiencing difficulty" in working with the Prison Service to transfer sex offenders to other jails for help in dealing with their specific problems.

The board said the prison's G wing now exclusively housed sex offenders and that bullying had reduced because of it.