Aviva announces today that it plans to increase its offshoring capacity by creating around 950 jobs offshore in 2005 to service its existing Norwich Union businesses. This builds on the 3,700 jobs Aviva has already created in India.

Aviva expects to conclude its offshoring plans by the end of 2007 and anticipates that it will have up to 7,000 roles offshore by then, servicing its existing UK businesses.

Aviva expects no more than 150 compulsory redundancies in 2005 as a result of offshoring, as the company's previous experience has shown that most job reductions can be achieved through normal staff turnover, redeployment and retraining.

Offshoring is a well-established strategy for Aviva which provides flexibility and efficiency and enables the company to maintain the quality of service which customers demand.

Around 760 of the roles will be based in India and will service the life and pensions and general insurance businesses in mainly back office administration roles. "We expect the remaining 190 roles will be predominantly finance support roles based in Sri Lanka".

The company will do all it can to minimise compulsory redundancies by redeploying staff to alternative roles. The company invests £1 million a year to provide career advice, retraining and support for staff affected by change.

The company anticipates that two main locations will be affected by compulsory redundancies, which could be up to:

• Norwich 70
• York 60

The remaining 20 compulsory redundancies will be across other Norwich Union locations.

Gary Withers, Norwich Union Life's chief executive, said: "We operate in very competitive markets where customers continually seek better value for money and quality of service. The experience of our existing offshore operations shows that the service levels in India continue to match those that we achieve in our UK operations. Expanding our offshore operations will give us the increased capacity we need. We expect to conclude our offshoring plans by the end of 2007 by which time we anticipate that we will have up to 7,000 roles offshore servicing our existing UK businesses.

"We recognise that this is a period of great uncertainty and will do everything we can to support staff during this time and ensure that they are kept fully informed throughout the process. We have a successful track record of redeployment with offshoring and as a result we will minimise the impact of redundancies."

Workers abroad in Asia, earn much less than their UK counterparts, which can be upto 40%.