Norwich Union is shedding IT jobs in Norwich and Perth.

The announcement from parent company Aviva comes after a review to make savings and improve efficiency.

The jobs will be lost mainly at offices in Norwich and Perth, affecting Norwich Union and RAC staff.

The firm said many major IT projects had recently finished, or were nearing completion, and many IT support services had been consolidated.

'Difficult time'

Sean Egan, chief information officer at Norwich Union Insurance, said: "A number of significant projects, such as the integration of RAC into Norwich Union, are now nearing their natural end.

"We therefore no longer need to maintain or upgrade old systems and services.

"We're also in the process of transferring all administration onto one single platform across the business, which will reduce the number of IT systems we use."

The company said it hoped many of the people affected would volunteer for redundancy, take early retirement or find work elsewhere in the business, but it did not rule out the possibility of compulsory job losses.

Mr Egan said: "We understand that this is a difficult time for our people and our priority now is to work through the detail of these changes and support those staff affected by today's announcement."