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 23 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 186 279 259
Rank change year-on-year +93 -20 -17
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 481 265 374
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.58% 0.84% 0.95%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.72% 2.82% 3.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 357 155 248
10th Percentile £305 £220 £359
25th Percentile £387 £364 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -
75th Percentile £627 £600 £630
90th Percentile £703 £666 £701
UK median daily rate £492 £500 £548
% change year-on-year -1.60% -8.68% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 10 34
10th Percentile £20.00 £33.50 £19.40
25th Percentile £22.63 £37.40 £24.63
Median hourly rate £33.50 £51.25 £48.75
Median % change year-on-year -34.63% +5.13% -10.55%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £72.81
90th Percentile £71.45 £65.25 £84.36
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £36.93 £48.75
% change year-on-year -9.28% -24.26% -9.72%

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 10,181 9,402 11,772
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.49% 29.92% 29.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,594 5,737 7,489
10th Percentile £305 £313 £306
25th Percentile £415 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £531 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.04% -3.55% -
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 897 446 716
10th Percentile £17.69 £20.21 £17.72
25th Percentile £19.10 £27.00 £26.63
Median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £53.50
Median % change year-on-year -49.70% -6.54% +18.89%
75th Percentile £52.50 £68.13 £68.97
90th Percentile £74.56 £75.83 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £53.67
% change year-on-year -40.82% -20.80% +19.26%

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 23 November 2025.

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 23 November 2025.

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 23 November 2025. 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
North of England +54 185 £469 +10.48% 55
London +59 137 £510 -10.13% 75
North West +56 136 £450 -10.45% 42
Midlands -12 56 £470 -3.09% 31
West Midlands -9 41 £510 +8.51% 26
South East +14 38 £475 +13.10% 172
Yorkshire -13 38 £500 +127.27% 6
South West +5 34 £560 -5.08% 103
East of England -24 19 £515 +134.09% 114
East Midlands -1 15 £416 -32.15% 5
North East +3 13 £506 +22.36% 8
South Coast - 1 £500 -
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 35 (7.28%) Confluence
2 9 (1.87%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.25%) nginx
3 6 (1.25%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.83%) Apache
5 3 (0.62%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.42%) CMS
6 2 (0.42%) MTS
6 2 (0.42%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.21%) Appian
7 1 (0.21%) JBoss
7 1 (0.21%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.21%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (3.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.46%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.83%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.62%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.62%) Photoshop
4 3 (0.62%) Siemens NX
4 3 (0.62%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.42%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.42%) Sketch
5 2 (0.42%) Trello
6 1 (0.21%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.21%) Fusion 360
6 1 (0.21%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.21%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.21%) Revit
6 1 (0.21%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 32 (6.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.87%) Oracle EBS
3 8 (1.66%) SAP EHS
4 6 (1.25%) SAP HCM
5 5 (1.04%) Oracle EBS R12
5 5 (1.04%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (1.04%) SAP QM
5 5 (1.04%) SAP VC
6 4 (0.83%) Maximo
6 4 (0.83%) Oracle Cash Management
6 4 (0.83%) Oracle ERP
6 4 (0.83%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.83%) Oracle SCM
7 3 (0.62%) Oracle ASCP
7 3 (0.62%) SAP BRIM
7 3 (0.62%) SAP Hybris
7 3 (0.62%) SAP PSCD
7 3 (0.62%) Teamcenter
8 2 (0.42%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 2 (0.42%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 64 (13.31%) AWS
2 52 (10.81%) Azure
3 16 (3.33%) Power Platform
3 16 (3.33%) Serverless
4 14 (2.91%) GitHub
5 13 (2.70%) AWS Lambda
6 12 (2.49%) GCP
7 10 (2.08%) Microsoft 365
7 10 (2.08%) SuccessFactors
8 9 (1.87%) Amazon EC2
8 9 (1.87%) AWS CloudFormation
8 9 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (1.66%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 8 (1.66%) Amazon SQS
9 8 (1.66%) Entra ID
9 8 (1.66%) Power Automate
9 8 (1.66%) SaaS
10 7 (1.46%) Amazon S3
10 7 (1.46%) PaaS
10 7 (1.46%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.70%) Firewall
2 7 (1.46%) DNS
2 7 (1.46%) Network Security
3 6 (1.25%) LAN
3 6 (1.25%) VPN
4 5 (1.04%) WAN
5 4 (0.83%) MPLS
5 4 (0.83%) SD-WAN
5 4 (0.83%) SSH
5 4 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.62%) 5G
6 3 (0.62%) BGP
6 3 (0.62%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.62%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (0.62%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.62%) OSPF
6 3 (0.62%) Radio Access Network
6 3 (0.62%) Structured Cabling
6 3 (0.62%) Unified Communications
6 3 (0.62%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.70%) Power BI
2 12 (2.49%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (2.08%) MongoDB
3 10 (2.08%) NoSQL
4 7 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.25%) Metadata
5 6 (1.25%) Oracle Database
5 6 (1.25%) SQL Server
6 4 (0.83%) BigQuery
6 4 (0.83%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.83%) Hadoop
6 4 (0.83%) Redis
6 4 (0.83%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.83%) Tableau
7 3 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.62%) DocumentDB
7 3 (0.62%) DynamoDB
7 3 (0.62%) Looker
7 3 (0.62%) SAP HANA
8 2 (0.42%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 49 (10.19%) JIRA
2 39 (8.11%) Git
3 17 (3.53%) Jenkins
4 16 (3.33%) GitLab
5 12 (2.49%) Cucumber
6 9 (1.87%) JUnit
7 8 (1.66%) SonarQube
8 7 (1.46%) Mockito
9 6 (1.25%) Cypress.io
10 5 (1.04%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.04%) Selenium
11 4 (0.83%) Gradle
11 4 (0.83%) Grunt
11 4 (0.83%) gulp
12 3 (0.62%) Android Studio
12 3 (0.62%) Maven
12 3 (0.62%) Toad
12 3 (0.62%) webpack
13 2 (0.42%) JMeter
13 2 (0.42%) WebDriver
General
1 140 (29.11%) Social Skills
2 79 (16.42%) Finance
3 74 (15.38%) Public Sector
4 38 (7.90%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (5.41%) Banking
6 21 (4.37%) Aerospace
7 16 (3.33%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.49%) Aviation
8 12 (2.49%) Telecoms
9 9 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.46%) Billing
11 7 (1.46%) Legal
12 5 (1.04%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.83%) Local Government
14 3 (0.62%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.62%) Investment Banking
14 3 (0.62%) Marketing
14 3 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 72 (14.97%) Developer
2 64 (13.31%) Consultant
3 48 (9.98%) Senior
4 45 (9.36%) Analyst
5 38 (7.90%) Architect
6 36 (7.48%) SAP Consultant
7 26 (5.41%) Lead
8 20 (4.16%) Java Developer
9 17 (3.53%) Business Analyst
9 17 (3.53%) Solutions Architect
10 16 (3.33%) Administrator
10 16 (3.33%) Delivery Manager
11 11 (2.29%) Project Manager
11 11 (2.29%) Senior Developer
12 10 (2.08%) Designer
12 10 (2.08%) Information Security Advisor
12 10 (2.08%) Management Consultant
12 10 (2.08%) Security Advisor
12 10 (2.08%) Senior Analyst
13 9 (1.87%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (4.57%) React
1 22 (4.57%) REST
2 16 (3.33%) JSON
2 16 (3.33%) Node.js
2 16 (3.33%) RESTful
3 14 (2.91%) HTML
4 13 (2.70%) Spring
5 12 (2.49%) Kafka
5 12 (2.49%) SAP Fiori
6 10 (2.08%) CSS
6 10 (2.08%) Jest
7 9 (1.87%) AngularJS
8 8 (1.66%) ActiveMQ
8 8 (1.66%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.66%) XML
9 7 (1.46%) HTML5
9 7 (1.46%) LDAP
10 6 (1.25%) .NET
10 6 (1.25%) CSS3
10 6 (1.25%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 40 (8.32%) Onboarding
2 23 (4.78%) Product Ownership
3 16 (3.33%) Management Information System
4 13 (2.70%) Security Posture
5 9 (1.87%) Cloud Native
5 9 (1.87%) NHS
6 8 (1.66%) Mobile App
6 8 (1.66%) SCADA
7 6 (1.25%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.25%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (1.04%) AI Agents
8 5 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
8 5 (1.04%) Low-Code
8 5 (1.04%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.04%) Public Cloud
9 4 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (0.83%) Driving Licence
9 4 (0.83%) Fibre Optics
9 4 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (0.83%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 33 (6.86%) Linux
2 22 (4.57%) Windows
3 20 (4.16%) Unix
4 7 (1.46%) Android
5 6 (1.25%) Mac OS X
6 5 (1.04%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.21%) CentOS
10 1 (0.21%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.21%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.21%) VME
10 1 (0.21%) VMS
10 1 (0.21%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.21%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (26.82%) Agile
2 72 (14.97%) Stakeholder Management
3 68 (14.14%) Problem-Solving
4 55 (11.43%) DevOps
5 48 (9.98%) CI/CD
6 41 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
6 41 (8.52%) Test Automation
7 37 (7.69%) Change Management
8 36 (7.48%) Microservices
8 36 (7.48%) Scrum
9 31 (6.44%) Roadmaps
10 28 (5.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 27 (5.61%) Risk Management
12 26 (5.41%) Migration
12 26 (5.41%) User Acceptance Testing
12 26 (5.41%) Validation
13 25 (5.20%) Analytics
14 24 (4.99%) AI
15 22 (4.57%) TDD
16 21 (4.37%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 55 (11.43%) Python
2 49 (10.19%) Java
3 40 (8.32%) SQL
4 17 (3.53%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.70%) PowerShell
6 11 (2.29%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.87%) ABAP
8 8 (1.66%) C++
8 8 (1.66%) PL/SQL
9 7 (1.46%) Bash
9 7 (1.46%) Ruby
10 6 (1.25%) Go
10 6 (1.25%) Scala
11 5 (1.04%) R
12 3 (0.62%) Apex Code
12 3 (0.62%) C#
12 3 (0.62%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.62%) PHP
13 2 (0.42%) COBOL
13 2 (0.42%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 262 (54.47%) Security Cleared
2 187 (38.88%) SC Cleared
3 32 (6.65%) Degree
4 16 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (2.49%) Master's Degree
6 11 (2.29%) BC Cleared
7 10 (2.08%) DBS Check
7 10 (2.08%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.08%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 9 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.46%) CCNP
10 5 (1.04%) CISM
11 4 (0.83%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.83%) ISEB
11 4 (0.83%) ISTQB
11 4 (0.83%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 3 (0.62%) CCNA
12 3 (0.62%) MCP
12 3 (0.62%) SAP Certification
13 2 (0.42%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (5.41%) QA
2 20 (4.16%) Accessibility
3 17 (3.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (2.29%) GRC
5 10 (2.08%) Def Stans
6 7 (1.46%) Data Quality
6 7 (1.46%) NIST
6 7 (1.46%) PMO
7 6 (1.25%) GDPR
7 6 (1.25%) SLA
8 5 (1.04%) NCSC
8 5 (1.04%) WCAG
9 4 (0.83%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.62%) PSD2
11 2 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 2 (0.42%) SEPA
12 1 (0.21%) ECSS
12 1 (0.21%) P3O
12 1 (0.21%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.21%) RMADS
System Software
1 31 (6.44%) Docker
2 19 (3.95%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.83%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.62%) vSphere
6 2 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.21%) ACF2
7 1 (0.21%) GPFS
7 1 (0.21%) HDFS
7 1 (0.21%) NFS
7 1 (0.21%) Postfix
7 1 (0.21%) RACF
7 1 (0.21%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 26 (5.41%) Kubernetes
2 20 (4.16%) Terraform
3 6 (1.25%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (0.83%) Ansible
4 4 (0.83%) Packer
4 4 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (0.62%) Consul
5 3 (0.62%) Grafana
5 3 (0.62%) PingFederate
5 3 (0.62%) Puppet
5 3 (0.62%) vRealize
6 2 (0.42%) Ambari
6 2 (0.42%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.42%) SCCM
6 2 (0.42%) VxRail
6 2 (0.42%) ZABBIX
7 1 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.21%) Kubeflow
7 1 (0.21%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.21%) SCOM
Vendors
1 74 (15.38%) SAP
2 55 (11.43%) Microsoft
3 39 (8.11%) Oracle
4 15 (3.12%) Cisco
4 15 (3.12%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.91%) VMware
6 10 (2.08%) Google
7 9 (1.87%) Atlassian
8 8 (1.66%) Adobe
9 7 (1.46%) IBM
10 6 (1.25%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.04%) AppDynamics
11 5 (1.04%) webMethods
11 5 (1.04%) Workday
12 4 (0.83%) MuleSoft
12 4 (0.83%) Salesforce
12 4 (0.83%) Siemens
13 3 (0.62%) Broadcom
13 3 (0.62%) Dell
13 3 (0.62%) Juniper