ONE-THIRD of BBC Radio Scotland's production staff are to lose their jobs and two news programmes will be axed as cuts take their toll on the corporation north of the Border.

Staff at Pacific Quay in Glasgow, the BBC's headquarters in Scotland, were told yesterday eight radio production journalists there, out of 27, and three more in the BBC's base in Edinburgh would lose their jobs in the coming year.

Two radio news programmes – Scotland at Ten, which reports from Holyrood, and Newsweek, the analysis of the week's news which is broadcast on Saturdays – will also go as part of the changes.

The move has been prompted by the Delivering Quality First savings drive, which will result in the loss of 2000 jobs as £670 million is saved across the BBC in the next five years.

Newsweek will be replaced by a new Saturday version of Good Morning Scotland, which will become a six-day-a-week operation.

Overall the cuts are part of the savings of between 16% and 20% that BBC Scotland must make from its £102m annual budget, which will result in one in 10 jobs – 120 in total – lost at BBC Scotland by 2016/17.

The cuts have been prompted by the freeze in the TV licence at £145.50 until 2017.

Last night Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said she continues to have "deep concerns" over the impact of the changes.

She said: "We have previously sought assurances that the quality of the BBC's output in Scotland, particularly in relation to news and current affairs, will not suffer as a consequence of these cuts.

"At a time of such momentous importance for our nation, I continue to have deep concerns about the potential impact of these job losses and programming cutbacks.

"I understand the BBC is being forced to make difficult decisions because of the damaging licence fee settle-ment imposed by the UK Government.

"This reinforces why it is so essential that Scotland has greater accountability and responsibility for broadcasting."

A BBC insider said last night: "People are angry and disappointed. They are worried about their jobs and they are worried about the programmes themselves – these are the staff that produce GMS and Newsdrive and John Beattie's show – and they are the programmes that are important and which they are proud of.

"Obviously this is an important time in Scotland, there is a huge political debate and the timing of these cuts couldn't be worse.

"People concerned about public service broadcasting will find this a worry."

David Eyre, outgoing Father of the Chapel for the NUJ at BBC Scotland, said staff are worried about their future. He added: "We do certainly hope that MSPs take notice of these cuts, especially to political coverage.

"We hope these are just proposals and are not set in stone."

A spokesman for the BBC said that Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, had outlined staff cuts last year and yesterday's announcement was part of that cuts plan.

He added: "These are part of the plan that will save 100 to 120 staff positions over the next four or five years, and we hope to do that, as much as is possible, through voluntary redundancy.

"We already broadcast a great range of political coverage. Scotland at Ten has a small audience. We are now trying to concentrate on speech programmes during the day, and music at night, and this change fits into that plan."

Last October, when the scope of the cuts was revealed, it was said that more BBC Scotland programmes would appear on the main UK network in the coming years, more than 8.6% by 2016/17, including the soap opera River City.

However, jobs will be lost in news, production, operations, radio, online and Gaelic, as well as at Radio Scotland and possibly in sport.

Around 20 jobs have already been cut by ongoing efficiency savings at BBC Scotland.