BLM has confirmed that it is cutting 50 roles among its secretarial and direct support staff, following a redundancy consultation that launched in June.

The insurance firm said it had not had to make any compulsory redundancies, as the required number of staff had taken voluntary redundancy.

A spokesperson said: "Following the review of our direct support teams across all locations in line with our ongoing business improvement programme, we can confirm that we received the required number of voluntary redundancy requests. As a result, no compulsory redundancy notices were issued."

Staff were initially informed of the consultation on 8 June. RollOnFriday, which first reported the news, said staff were being offered statutory redundancy, although the firm refused to comment on the package being offered.

The news comes after the surprise departure of managing partner Gary Allison, who left the firm just eight months into a three-year term at the helm of the firm.

Allison, who had been at BLM for 23 years, left to "pursue other interests", a spokesperson said. He was succeeded by Manchester claims solutions head Vivienne Williams, who had spent three years as a member of the firm's executive board.

Last year BLM posted a 28% drop in profits per equity partner for 2015-16, alongside a 3.5% increase in revenue.