Almost 2,300 Civil Service job vacancies across the West Midlands have been secretly advertised to existing government employees, it was claimed today.

The Conservatives are accusing the Government of keeping unemployed people on the dole and not advertising the jobs to external applicants. The Civil Service is running a pilot scheme in the West Midlands to fill in-house vacancies. It has managed to fill 149 posts at HM Revenue and Customs in Wolverhampton without needing to advertise externally.

Another 123 jobs have been filled at Defra in Worcester, with other hundreds more at branches of the Department for Work and Pensions, The UK Border Agency and Job Centre Plus.

The Tories want all such job vacancies to be advertised on-line.

Nick Hurd, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “It is really unfair that central government jobs are being hidden from the public.

“Hard-working people across the West Midlands struggling on the dole should have every right to apply for these vacancies. It’s time to open up the Government’s closed job shop by publishing these jobs on-line and in job centres.

“Making greater use of the internet will save money, expose unnecessary bureaucracy and ensure fair competition in the job market.

“This isn’t the Secret Service. If there are job vacancies for the Civil Service, they should be advertised for everyone to apply, so we get the best candidates for the job.

“This is no place for “jobs for the boys” in a modern workplace.”

Annie Harris, spokeswoman for Civil Service West Midlands, said: “Civil Service West Midlands and now Civil Service English Regions work to join up organisations and provide an effective and efficient means of filling in-house vacancies using people with transferable skills before turning to external recruitment.

“In-house vacancy filling is good practice and carried out by the most efficient organisations in both the public and private sectors.”