MI5 goes hunting for new spooks on Tube

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Over the next week posters will appear on London buses and Tube trains with an image of an apparently abandoned car.

One version asks the question: "Parked?", while another asks "Stalled?". The advert concludes: "As part of our team, you'll help decide."

The suggestion is that applicants should have the intelligence to decide whether the car is a potential terrorist threat.

The adverts are aimed at meeting the demands of the security service's expansion programme.

The campaign, the most public so far, shows an organisation trying to balance the operational need for secrecy with a determination to grow and recruit talent in a competitive labour market.

The Home Office said it was designed to "highlight the wide variety of career opportunities with MI5".

It said the adverts showed jobs within MI5 "not traditionally associated with the security service, such as mechanics and IT professionals".

A recent survey showed MI5 is now the top prospective employer among British male students, and the third among women.

But discretion remains an integral part of being a spook. Applicants for becoming an intelligence officer "should only discuss the application with his or her partner or immediate family".