MI5's Mystery Ad For Health And Safety Chief

As James Bond would surely testify, when you work for the security services to protect Britain, danger is simply part of the job.

But in a move likely to raise a quizzical eyebrow from the fictional super-spy, MI5 is now recruiting its own health and safety team.

The home of secret missions and risky counter-espionage has decided it needs a health and safety manager as well as two advisers to keep its staff out of danger.

But any applicants face an uphill struggle to find out more about the £60,000 role to ensure MI5's operations are as safe as possible.

To protect national security, they will be told nothing about where they will be working, who with or what technology will be involved.

Possible candidates for the manager's position are even warned they will be told very little about the job they are applying for.

The advert on the MI5 website says: "We can't show you the buildings. We can't talk about the people you'll work with.

"We can't tell you much about the job. We can't give you the exact locations. We can't mention the kind of technology involved.

"Is it still a risk worth taking?"

The description reveals only that the job is "London based with some UK travel".

Highlighting the challenges of working for the security service, it adds: "What we can tell you is that whatever your role at MI5, you'll be contributing to protecting the UK from threats to national security including terrorism and espionage.

"Like other large organisations, at MI5 we use a variety of equipment to carry out our work, except here our work is often covert and our equipment classified."

Applicants will have to get through a number of vetting stages before being accepted for the role. If picked, they would of course find out the full details.

MI5 is known for its secrecy and only the director general is ever publicly named.