BPSS Clearance Contract Job Trends in England

Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Clearance
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for BPSS Clearance qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 17 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 127 211 254
Rank change year-on-year +84 +43 -8
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 926 346 347
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.07% 1.27% 0.96%
As % of the Qualifications category 6.54% 4.12% 3.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 651 243 233
10th Percentile £340 £265 £200
25th Percentile £405 £395 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £575 £606 £588
90th Percentile £675 £711 £650
UK median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 36 46
10th Percentile £19.50 £19.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £28.50 £22.63 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +82.25% -63.77%
75th Percentile £62.50 £70.43 £34.50
90th Percentile £77.70 £75.63 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £27.63 £16.06
% change year-on-year +59.10% +72.04% -63.77%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

BPSS Clearance falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 14,167 8,408 11,082
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.63% 30.90% 30.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,562 5,303 6,947
10th Percentile £350 £288 £313
25th Percentile £430 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £717 £716 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £525
% change year-on-year - - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,053 605 942
10th Percentile £17.87 £18.13 £14.25
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £21.25
Median hourly rate £54.00 £27.13 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +99.08% -36.92% -21.82%
75th Percentile £74.50 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.96 £76.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £50.74 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +101.76% -40.82% -24.47%

BPSS Clearance
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing BPSS Clearance relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

BPSS Clearance job vacancy trend in England

BPSS Clearance
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BPSS Clearance.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BPSS Clearance

BPSS Clearance
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BPSS Clearance in England over the 6 months to 17 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for BPSS Clearance in England

BPSS Clearance
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BPSS Clearance.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BPSS Clearance

BPSS Clearance
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BPSS Clearance in England over the 6 months to 17 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BPSS Clearance in England

BPSS Clearance
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing BPSS Clearance within the England region over the 6 months to 17 July 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +75 296 £500 - 49
North of England +27 254 £463 -2.63% 36
Midlands +21 142 £481 -2.18% 38
North West +5 137 £459 -6.71% 28
West Midlands +21 125 £481 +6.56% 35
South East -5 114 £500 -4.76% 44
South West +11 78 £525 +50.00% 39
North East +8 72 £450 +10.43% 6
Yorkshire +1 57 £471 -5.90% 2
East of England -15 27 £577 +188.53% 22
East Midlands -13 16 £520 -25.71% 3
BPSS Clearance
UK

BPSS Clearance
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 39 (4.21%) Confluence
2 21 (2.27%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.97%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.65%) Apache
4 6 (0.65%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (0.65%) SAS
5 3 (0.32%) LiveCycle
5 3 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.32%) WordPress
6 2 (0.22%) CICS
6 2 (0.22%) Cloud Foundry
6 2 (0.22%) CMS
6 2 (0.22%) Ethereum
6 2 (0.22%) Hyperledger
6 2 (0.22%) OpenROAD
6 2 (0.22%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.11%) Appian
7 1 (0.11%) Camunda
7 1 (0.11%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 40 (4.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (2.16%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (1.62%) Microsoft Project
4 12 (1.30%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.43%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.32%) Simulink
7 2 (0.22%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.22%) Trello
8 1 (0.11%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.11%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.11%) CATIA
8 1 (0.11%) InVision
8 1 (0.11%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.11%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.11%) Revit
8 1 (0.11%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 21 (2.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.08%) SAP PSCD
3 9 (0.97%) SAP IBP
4 7 (0.76%) SAP BRIM
4 7 (0.76%) SAP EWM
4 7 (0.76%) SAP Travel Management
5 6 (0.65%) SAP HR
6 4 (0.43%) Primavera
6 4 (0.43%) SAP Convergent Charging
6 4 (0.43%) SAP MM
7 3 (0.32%) Dynamics CRM
7 3 (0.32%) iTrent
7 3 (0.32%) Loan IQ
7 3 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.32%) Shopify
8 2 (0.22%) ProductWriter
8 2 (0.22%) Quorum
8 2 (0.22%) R3 Corda
8 2 (0.22%) Ripple
8 2 (0.22%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 148 (15.98%) Azure
2 139 (15.01%) AWS
3 56 (6.05%) Power Platform
4 35 (3.78%) Azure DevOps
5 33 (3.56%) GitHub
5 33 (3.56%) Serverless
6 29 (3.13%) GCP
7 23 (2.48%) AWS Lambda
8 22 (2.38%) Amazon S3
8 22 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
9 19 (2.05%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.94%) Microsoft 365
11 13 (1.40%) Azure Data Factory
12 10 (1.08%) Amazon ECS
12 10 (1.08%) Google Workspace
13 9 (0.97%) Azure Monitor
13 9 (0.97%) dbt
14 8 (0.86%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 8 (0.86%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 8 (0.86%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.62%) DNS
2 12 (1.30%) Firewall
3 11 (1.19%) Network Security
4 9 (0.97%) WebEx
5 6 (0.65%) DHCP
5 6 (0.65%) HTTPS
5 6 (0.65%) WAN
6 5 (0.54%) Intranet
7 4 (0.43%) Cisco IPT
7 4 (0.43%) Ethernet
7 4 (0.43%) SSL
7 4 (0.43%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.32%) Internet
8 3 (0.32%) MQTT
8 3 (0.32%) VPN
8 3 (0.32%) Wireless
9 2 (0.22%) Reverse Proxy
9 2 (0.22%) SAN
9 2 (0.22%) SSH
9 2 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (4.75%) Power BI
2 23 (2.48%) Data Warehouse
3 21 (2.27%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (2.05%) SQL Server
5 15 (1.62%) Metadata
5 15 (1.62%) MongoDB
6 11 (1.19%) DynamoDB
7 10 (1.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 9 (0.97%) Amazon Athena
8 9 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
8 9 (0.97%) NoSQL
8 9 (0.97%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.86%) Amazon RDS
9 8 (0.86%) Data Lake
10 7 (0.76%) MySQL
10 7 (0.76%) Tableau
11 6 (0.65%) Geospatial Data
11 6 (0.65%) Power Query
12 5 (0.54%) Delta Lake
12 5 (0.54%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 76 (8.21%) JIRA
2 48 (5.18%) Git
3 37 (4.00%) GitLab
4 24 (2.59%) Jenkins
5 14 (1.51%) Selenium
6 12 (1.30%) Cucumber
7 8 (0.86%) Team Foundation Server
8 7 (0.76%) Cypress.io
8 7 (0.76%) Gatling
8 7 (0.76%) JUnit
9 6 (0.65%) Maven
9 6 (0.65%) Visual Studio
10 5 (0.54%) Rational DOORS
10 5 (0.54%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.43%) Artifactory
11 4 (0.43%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 4 (0.43%) Mockito
11 4 (0.43%) Postman
11 4 (0.43%) WebDriver
12 3 (0.32%) REST Assured
General
1 280 (30.24%) Social Skills
2 206 (22.25%) Public Sector
3 155 (16.74%) Finance
4 108 (11.66%) Analytical Skills
5 55 (5.94%) Legal
6 48 (5.18%) Organisational Skills
7 36 (3.89%) Aerospace
8 30 (3.24%) Banking
9 22 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
10 20 (2.16%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
11 14 (1.51%) Manufacturing
12 13 (1.40%) Billing
13 12 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 12 (1.30%) Local Government
13 12 (1.30%) Telecoms
14 10 (1.08%) Aviation
15 9 (0.97%) Law
15 9 (0.97%) Retail
16 7 (0.76%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 111 (11.99%) Senior
2 105 (11.34%) Analyst
3 98 (10.58%) Lead
4 78 (8.42%) Developer
5 65 (7.02%) Architect
6 63 (6.80%) Consultant
7 51 (5.51%) Designer
8 45 (4.86%) Business Analyst
8 45 (4.86%) SAP Consultant
9 40 (4.32%) Data Engineer
10 27 (2.92%) Administrator
11 23 (2.48%) Delivery Manager
12 22 (2.38%) Product Manager
12 22 (2.38%) User Researcher
13 21 (2.27%) Data Analyst
14 20 (2.16%) Service Designer
14 20 (2.16%) Software Engineer
15 19 (2.05%) DevOps Engineer
15 19 (2.05%) Senior Analyst
16 18 (1.94%) Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.24%) Node.js
1 30 (3.24%) REST
2 26 (2.81%) React
2 26 (2.81%) Spring Boot
3 25 (2.70%) Spring
4 24 (2.59%) RESTful
5 21 (2.27%) HTML
6 18 (1.94%) Kafka
7 16 (1.73%) .NET
7 16 (1.73%) Playwright
8 15 (1.62%) CSS
9 13 (1.40%) PySpark
10 12 (1.30%) JSON
11 11 (1.19%) AngularJS
12 9 (0.97%) OAuth
12 9 (0.97%) SOAP
12 9 (0.97%) XML
13 8 (0.86%) SAML
13 8 (0.86%) Web Services
14 7 (0.76%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 64 (6.91%) Product Ownership
2 56 (6.05%) Onboarding
3 42 (4.54%) Virtual Team
4 40 (4.32%) Web Conferencing
5 39 (4.21%) Cloud Native
6 35 (3.78%) Podcast
7 21 (2.27%) Management Information System
7 21 (2.27%) NHS
8 15 (1.62%) BYOD
9 12 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.19%) Algorithms
10 11 (1.19%) Mobile App
11 10 (1.08%) Data Centre
11 10 (1.08%) Distributed Systems
11 10 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (0.86%) PMI
13 6 (0.65%) Video Conferencing
14 5 (0.54%) AI Agents
14 5 (0.54%) Data Structures
15 4 (0.43%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 48 (5.18%) Linux
2 45 (4.86%) Windows
3 23 (2.48%) Unix
4 13 (1.40%) Android
4 13 (1.40%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.97%) Apple iOS
6 8 (0.86%) Mac OS
7 7 (0.76%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.32%) VMS
9 2 (0.22%) AIX
9 2 (0.22%) Solaris
10 1 (0.11%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 279 (30.13%) Agile
2 156 (16.85%) Stakeholder Management
3 136 (14.69%) CI/CD
4 121 (13.07%) DevOps
5 113 (12.20%) Problem-Solving
6 110 (11.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 98 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
8 85 (9.18%) Decision-Making
9 83 (8.96%) Analytics
10 77 (8.32%) Roadmaps
11 74 (7.99%) Scrum
12 69 (7.45%) AI
13 64 (6.91%) Test Automation
14 59 (6.37%) User Research
15 55 (5.94%) Infrastructure as Code
16 54 (5.83%) Mentoring
16 54 (5.83%) Migration
16 54 (5.83%) Software Engineering
16 54 (5.83%) Workshop Facilitation
17 53 (5.72%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 109 (11.77%) Python
2 103 (11.12%) SQL
3 75 (8.10%) Java
4 40 (4.32%) JavaScript
5 26 (2.81%) Scala
6 22 (2.38%) TypeScript
7 20 (2.16%) PowerShell
8 13 (1.40%) C#
9 10 (1.08%) Bash
9 10 (1.08%) C++
9 10 (1.08%) VB
10 9 (0.97%) PL/SQL
10 9 (0.97%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.97%) VB6
11 7 (0.76%) C
12 6 (0.65%) ABAP
13 5 (0.54%) Bicep
13 5 (0.54%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.43%) Ada
14 4 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 329 (35.53%) Security Cleared
2 234 (25.27%) SC Cleared
3 60 (6.48%) Degree
4 15 (1.62%) DV Cleared
5 11 (1.19%) Azure Certification
6 10 (1.08%) AWS Certification
7 9 (0.97%) CTC Cleared
7 9 (0.97%) PMI Certification
8 8 (0.86%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (0.65%) A+ Certification
10 5 (0.54%) CompTIA CySA+
10 5 (0.54%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (0.54%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.54%) Master's Degree
11 4 (0.43%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 4 (0.43%) CCNA
11 4 (0.43%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.43%) GIAC
12 3 (0.32%) ISTQB
12 3 (0.32%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (7.34%) Data Quality
2 55 (5.94%) QA
3 40 (4.32%) Accessibility
4 21 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 20 (2.16%) GDPR
6 19 (2.05%) PMO
7 18 (1.94%) NIST
8 13 (1.40%) SLA
9 11 (1.19%) WCAG
10 5 (0.54%) GRC
10 5 (0.54%) NCSC
11 4 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.43%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.32%) HL7
12 3 (0.32%) PERC
12 3 (0.32%) Solvency II
13 2 (0.22%) DICOM
13 2 (0.22%) IFRS 17
13 2 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 17025
13 2 (0.22%) PSD2
System Software
1 47 (5.08%) Docker
2 31 (3.35%) Active Directory
3 14 (1.51%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.76%) Virtual Desktop
4 7 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.43%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.32%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.22%) vSphere
8 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.11%) GPFS
8 1 (0.11%) NFS
8 1 (0.11%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 66 (7.13%) Terraform
2 44 (4.75%) Kubernetes
3 18 (1.94%) Grafana
4 10 (1.08%) Prometheus
5 9 (0.97%) Ansible
6 8 (0.86%) Kibana
7 6 (0.65%) SCCM
7 6 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.54%) Argo
9 4 (0.43%) HAProxy
9 4 (0.43%) Istio
9 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.43%) Podman
10 3 (0.32%) Puppet
10 3 (0.32%) SCOM
11 2 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 2 (0.22%) Kubeflow
11 2 (0.22%) Packer
12 1 (0.11%) linkerd
12 1 (0.11%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 110 (11.88%) Microsoft
2 84 (9.07%) SAP
3 39 (4.21%) Oracle
4 32 (3.46%) ServiceNow
5 27 (2.92%) Google
6 17 (1.84%) Databricks
7 14 (1.51%) VMware
8 12 (1.30%) Splunk
9 11 (1.19%) Cisco
9 11 (1.19%) CyberArk
10 10 (1.08%) BeyondTrust
10 10 (1.08%) IBM
11 7 (0.76%) Informatica
11 7 (0.76%) Workday
12 6 (0.65%) Apple
12 6 (0.65%) Salesforce
12 6 (0.65%) Talend
13 5 (0.54%) Atlassian
13 5 (0.54%) Pega
13 5 (0.54%) Tenable