In October, the NMM launched a spending review as part of a restructure designed to cut running costs after visitor numbers halved in 10 years.

A spokesman for the NMM, which is based at Bradford, West Yorkshire told Amateur Photographer yesterday: ‘The new organisational structure started this month [January]. Nine roles have been lost, all through voluntary redundancy.’

The spokesman said the museum does not plan to release details of the staff who are leaving and, at the time of writing, had yet to comment on how the photo collections division will be affected (see UPDATE below).

The roles were cut during the initial phase of the review process. A wider review is ongoing.

In a statement released just before Christmas, the NMM said it does not expect to make compulsory redundancies.

At the time, the museum’s head, Jo Quinton-Tulloch, said she was confident the changes would enable the NMM to deliver a ‘revitalised visitor offer, a more varied programme and focus on the use, research and development of the core collections’.

NEWS UPDATE: The NMM has since told AP that the photo collection itself has not been affected by the cuts. ‘It is the structure of the department which oversees the whole of our core collections that has been reorganised, with the intention of putting greater focus on access to, and use of, our core national collections (including photography).’