SCOTTISH Widows is cutting around 130 jobs across the UK as part of restructuring of its pensions and investments business.

Around 45 roles will be created in Edinburgh and Bristol.

The cuts are among the 9,000 job losses that owner Lloyds Banking Group plans over the next three years.

In a statement the company said: "Lloyds Banking Group is today announcing around 130 role reductions in its insurance business as part of the reductions recently announced in the group's strategic update. These role reductions are part of our 2015-2017 plan. The group's recognised unions Accord, Unite, and LTU were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted."

The organisation said it would use natural turnover and redeploy people wherever possible.

It said that where it was necessary for employees to leave the company, it would look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy with compulsory redundancies always a last resort.