How has BBC Scotland made its latest cuts in Scotland?

The Herald Scotland

19-06-2025

A year after the channel's launch, BBC Scotland's then director, Donalda MacKinnon, who has led staff through the shake-up, announced her departure after 33 years with the broadcaster.
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Months later, the impact of the Covid pandemic on licence fee collection and commercial income was cited as a voluntary redundance 'trawl' across the whole of the BBC was launched in a bid to make £125m worth of savings.
The current BBC director-general, Tony Davie, who took over the role in 2020, announced a £500m spending squeeze in 2022, with a further £200m worth of cuts revealed last year, when he announced that the broadcaster was exploring how the licence fee could be reformed, after the end of a two-year freeze imposed by the UK Government.
Hayley Valentine is the current director of BBC Scotland. (Image: free)
The BBC has admitted cutting more than 50 jobs in Scotland over the last year as part of a spending squeeze being rolled out by the broadcaster.
Dozens of editorial and production roles at BBC Scotland have gone as part of a drive to make £700m worth of savings a year across the UK.
The cuts have emerged following controversies over the BBC's plans to drop long-running soap opera River City and the cancellation of The Nine, the flagship news programme created for the BBC Scotland channel.
The Herald revealed last week that BBC Scotland was scaling back its coverage of Edinburgh's festivals, including dropping its pop-up venue at the event.
Long-time presenter Shereen Nanjiani announced at the weekend that she was stepping down from her Saturday morning show after almost 17 years at the BBC.
The BBC promised that 80 new jobs would be created when the new channel, which launched in February 2019, was announced eight years ago.
However the BBC has been forced to roll-out significant cuts across the UK since then, amid calls for a reform of the licence fee system.
The BBC has said that below inflation rises or licence fee freezes have seen it lose out on more than £1 billion over the last decade.
BBC Scotland had 1276 staff according to its most recent annual report, which was published before the start of the recent redundancy programme.
Director-general Tim Davie announced in March 2024 that the BBC was having to increase its annual savings target by £200m to £700m a year by 2028, as he revealed that the broadcaster planned to explore ways to reform the licence fee, which is set by the UK Government, but had been frozen for the previous two years.
At the time, Mr Davie highlighted how below inflationary settlements had 'chipped away' at the BBC's income for years, resulting in a 30 per cent cut between 2010 and 2020.
Last summer the BBC announced plans to cut 500 jobs across its UK services as part of plans to become a 'leaner, more agile organisation.'
But by then it had already announced the end of The Nine, the hour-long news programme created for the launch of the BBC Scotland channel in 2019, and replace it with a new half-hour show running after the main Reporting Scotland programme.
The BBC told staff last September that it planned to cut around 115 editorial and production jobs in its 'nations and regions' teams in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
By the end of the month, a shake-up of BBC Scotland's daily arts coverage had been revealed, with singer and broadcaster Michelle McManus brought in to present a new celebrity-focus programme replacing The Afternoon Show, and poet Lennie Pennie presenting a half-hour showcase for Scottish culture.
BBC Scotland sparked widespread anger in March when it announced the end of its long-running soap opera River City.
Despite more than 12,000 supporters backing a petition calling for River City to be saved, the current BBC Scotland director, Hayley Valentine, who was only appointed last November, has insisted that a final decision has been taken on the show's future.
However the BBC has promised that River City's annual £9m budget will be reinvested in three new drama series which will be set in and around Glasgow.
Further cutbacks were confirmed last week by BBC Scotland, when it admitted that it would not be running its own pop-up venue during Edinburgh's festivals for the first time in 15 years.
Two of BBC Scotland's best-known presenters have announced that they were leaving the broadcaster in recent months.
Janice Forsyth, who presented The Afternoon Show until the start of 2024 and had worked for the BBC for more than 30 years, revealed in February that had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Shereen Nanjiani announced she was leaving her Saturday morning show live in air last weekend after 17 years with the BBC.
Although it was reported that between 20 and 30 BBC jobs were expected to be lost as a result of the most recent redundancy programme, the broadcaster has now admitted that more than 50 jobs have gone over the last 12 months.