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 12 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 183 267
Rank change year-on-year +72 +84 -17
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,137 422 292
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.45% 1.52% 0.89%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.68% 4.81% 2.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 808 307 190
10th Percentile £358 £308 £212
25th Percentile £425 £402 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +2.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £592 £623 £588
90th Percentile £675 £703 £634
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £500
% change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 169 39 14
10th Percentile £19.50 £19.70 £13.81
25th Percentile £42.00 £22.63 £20.03
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £38.85
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% -24.66% -34.43%
75th Percentile £53.90 £53.13 £63.13
90th Percentile £72.80 £74.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £27.50 £20.91
% change year-on-year +59.85% +31.50% -64.70%

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 14,807 8,771 9,849
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.95% 31.53% 29.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,953 5,557 6,105
10th Percentile £350 £305 £325
25th Percentile £440 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £633 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £713 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £525
% change year-on-year - - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,163 681 589
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.13 £17.06
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £27.00
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.75% -54.27% -
75th Percentile £74.00 £50.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £73.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £50.00
% change year-on-year +88.87% -49.70% -9.09%

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 12 September 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 12 September 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 12 September 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 +81 328 £510 -0.49% 154
North of England +17 314 £488 - 121
Midlands +57 256 £488 -7.14% 82
West Midlands +59 246 £488 -7.14% 58
North West +7 169 £500 +8.81% 66
South East -20 96 £483 -6.21% 128
North East +13 89 £453 -1.52% 27
South West +4 79 £525 +16.67% 104
Yorkshire -11 69 £475 -5.00% 29
East of England +6 47 £597 +25.17% 81
East Midlands -30 9 £606 +23.22% 24
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 49 (4.31%) Confluence
2 25 (2.20%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.62%) SAS
5 6 (0.53%) SharePoint Server
6 5 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.44%) CMS
6 5 (0.44%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.35%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.35%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.26%) WordPress
9 2 (0.18%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.18%) Ethereum
9 2 (0.18%) Hyperledger
9 2 (0.18%) LiveCycle
9 2 (0.18%) OpenROAD
10 1 (0.088%) Apache
10 1 (0.088%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.088%) Appian
10 1 (0.088%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 32 (2.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.32%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.26%) Trello
5 3 (0.26%) Windchill
6 2 (0.18%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.18%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.18%) Navisworks
6 2 (0.18%) Simulink
7 1 (0.088%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.088%) CATIA
7 1 (0.088%) InVision
7 1 (0.088%) ProjectWise
7 1 (0.088%) Revit
7 1 (0.088%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.088%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 40 (3.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (1.67%) SAP HR
3 13 (1.14%) SAP PSCD
4 9 (0.79%) SAP BRIM
4 9 (0.79%) SAP IBP
4 9 (0.79%) SAP Payroll
5 8 (0.70%) SAP HCM
6 5 (0.44%) SAP PP
7 4 (0.35%) SAP Convergent Charging
7 4 (0.35%) SAP EWM
7 4 (0.35%) SAP FI
7 4 (0.35%) SAP Hybris
8 3 (0.26%) Exchequer
8 3 (0.26%) iTrent
8 3 (0.26%) SAP CO
8 3 (0.26%) SAP FI/CO
8 3 (0.26%) SAP Travel Management
8 3 (0.26%) Shopify
8 3 (0.26%) Teamcenter
9 2 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 162 (14.25%) Azure
2 154 (13.54%) AWS
3 58 (5.10%) Power Platform
4 41 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
5 37 (3.25%) GitHub
6 35 (3.08%) Microsoft 365
7 31 (2.73%) Serverless
8 27 (2.37%) Amazon S3
9 25 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
9 25 (2.20%) GCP
10 24 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
11 23 (2.02%) SuccessFactors
12 21 (1.85%) Entra ID
13 14 (1.23%) Power Automate
13 14 (1.23%) PowerApps
14 12 (1.06%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 12 (1.06%) Azure Monitor
15 11 (0.97%) OneDrive
16 9 (0.79%) Azure AI
16 9 (0.79%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.06%) DNS
2 10 (0.88%) SSL
2 10 (0.88%) WebEx
3 8 (0.70%) Cisco IPT
3 8 (0.70%) Intranet
3 8 (0.70%) Network Security
4 7 (0.62%) 5G
4 7 (0.62%) Radio Access Network
4 7 (0.62%) Wireshark
5 6 (0.53%) WAN
6 5 (0.44%) 3GPP
6 5 (0.44%) Ethernet
6 5 (0.44%) Firewall
6 5 (0.44%) NGN
6 5 (0.44%) tcpdump
7 4 (0.35%) DHCP
7 4 (0.35%) HTTPS
7 4 (0.35%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.26%) Internet
8 3 (0.26%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (3.34%) Power BI
2 27 (2.37%) SQL Server
3 25 (2.20%) Metadata
4 22 (1.93%) Data Warehouse
5 21 (1.85%) MongoDB
6 20 (1.76%) MySQL
6 20 (1.76%) PostgreSQL
7 16 (1.41%) Amazon RDS
7 16 (1.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 11 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
9 10 (0.88%) Amazon Aurora
9 10 (0.88%) NoSQL
9 10 (0.88%) Oracle Database
10 9 (0.79%) Amazon Athena
11 8 (0.70%) Data Lake
11 8 (0.70%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.62%) Big Data
12 7 (0.62%) SAP BW
13 6 (0.53%) Relational Database
13 6 (0.53%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 87 (7.65%) JIRA
2 57 (5.01%) Git
3 52 (4.57%) GitLab
4 29 (2.55%) Jenkins
5 20 (1.76%) Selenium
6 19 (1.67%) JUnit
7 18 (1.58%) Cucumber
7 18 (1.58%) Maven
8 13 (1.14%) SonarQube
9 12 (1.06%) Gatling
10 10 (0.88%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 10 (0.88%) Team Foundation Server
10 10 (0.88%) Visual Studio
11 9 (0.79%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.70%) Mockito
13 7 (0.62%) Cypress.io
14 6 (0.53%) Postman
15 5 (0.44%) Rational DOORS
16 4 (0.35%) Artifactory
16 4 (0.35%) WebDriver
General
1 385 (33.86%) Social Skills
2 284 (24.98%) Public Sector
3 200 (17.59%) Finance
4 109 (9.59%) Analytical Skills
5 98 (8.62%) Organisational Skills
6 92 (8.09%) Legal
7 33 (2.90%) Aerospace
8 25 (2.20%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
8 25 (2.20%) Manufacturing
9 24 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
10 22 (1.93%) Banking
11 20 (1.76%) Telecoms
12 18 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 16 (1.41%) Billing
14 11 (0.97%) Local Government
15 10 (0.88%) Military
16 9 (0.79%) Law
17 7 (0.62%) Avionics
18 6 (0.53%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 139 (12.23%) Senior
2 116 (10.20%) Lead
3 111 (9.76%) Developer
4 97 (8.53%) Architect
5 88 (7.74%) Analyst
6 83 (7.30%) Consultant
7 59 (5.19%) SAP Consultant
8 56 (4.93%) Designer
9 39 (3.43%) Business Analyst
10 36 (3.17%) Delivery Manager
11 35 (3.08%) Data Engineer
12 34 (2.99%) Solutions Architect
13 27 (2.37%) Product Manager
14 26 (2.29%) Java Developer
14 26 (2.29%) User Researcher
15 23 (2.02%) DevOps Engineer
16 22 (1.93%) Administrator
17 21 (1.85%) Software Engineer
18 20 (1.76%) Data Architect
18 20 (1.76%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (5.36%) Terraform
2 47 (4.13%) Spring
3 39 (3.43%) Spring Boot
4 32 (2.81%) React
5 30 (2.64%) REST
6 28 (2.46%) Node.js
7 27 (2.37%) Playwright
8 26 (2.29%) HTML
9 20 (1.76%) Kafka
9 20 (1.76%) RESTful
10 18 (1.58%) CSS
11 16 (1.41%) OpenAPI
12 15 (1.32%) .NET
13 13 (1.14%) OAuth
14 12 (1.06%) Web Services
14 12 (1.06%) XML
15 11 (0.97%) Play Framework
15 11 (0.97%) SAML
15 11 (0.97%) SOAP
15 11 (0.97%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 80 (7.04%) Web Conferencing
2 79 (6.95%) Virtual Team
3 78 (6.86%) Onboarding
4 70 (6.16%) Podcast
5 60 (5.28%) Product Ownership
6 35 (3.08%) Cloud Native
7 17 (1.50%) BYOD
7 17 (1.50%) NHS
8 14 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (1.23%) Management Information System
8 14 (1.23%) Replication
9 13 (1.14%) Mobile App
10 11 (0.97%) Algorithms
10 11 (0.97%) Enterprise Software
10 11 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
11 10 (0.88%) Video Conferencing
12 9 (0.79%) Clustering
12 9 (0.79%) Data Centre
12 9 (0.79%) Taxonomies
13 8 (0.70%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 52 (4.57%) Windows
2 43 (3.78%) Linux
3 22 (1.93%) Unix
4 14 (1.23%) Windows Server
5 12 (1.06%) Android
6 10 (0.88%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.70%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.62%) Apple iOS
9 6 (0.53%) VMS
10 1 (0.088%) AIX
10 1 (0.088%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.088%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.088%) Solaris
10 1 (0.088%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 349 (30.69%) Agile
2 227 (19.96%) Stakeholder Management
3 149 (13.10%) CI/CD
4 140 (12.31%) DevOps
5 134 (11.79%) Continuous Improvement
6 132 (11.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 126 (11.08%) Problem-Solving
8 109 (9.59%) Scrum
9 93 (8.18%) Decision-Making
10 91 (8.00%) Customer Service
11 88 (7.74%) Roadmaps
12 79 (6.95%) Analytics
13 75 (6.60%) AI
14 74 (6.51%) Digital Transformation Programme
15 71 (6.24%) Migration
16 68 (5.98%) Mentoring
17 67 (5.89%) User Research
18 66 (5.80%) Test Automation
19 62 (5.45%) Workshop Facilitation
20 61 (5.36%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 109 (9.59%) Java
2 106 (9.32%) SQL
3 92 (8.09%) Python
4 47 (4.13%) JavaScript
5 31 (2.73%) Scala
6 26 (2.29%) PowerShell
7 19 (1.67%) TypeScript
8 18 (1.58%) Shell Script
9 14 (1.23%) Bash
9 14 (1.23%) C#
10 13 (1.14%) PL/SQL
11 12 (1.06%) VB
12 11 (0.97%) T-SQL
12 11 (0.97%) VB6
13 9 (0.79%) ABAP
13 9 (0.79%) C++
14 7 (0.62%) VBA
15 5 (0.44%) Ada
15 5 (0.44%) C
15 5 (0.44%) R
Qualifications
1 400 (35.18%) Security Cleared
2 307 (27.00%) SC Cleared
3 66 (5.80%) Degree
4 17 (1.50%) Azure Certification
4 17 (1.50%) Microsoft Certification
5 12 (1.06%) DBS Check
6 11 (0.97%) A+ Certification
6 11 (0.97%) DV Cleared
7 9 (0.79%) AWS Certification
8 8 (0.70%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 7 (0.62%) PMI Certification
10 6 (0.53%) CTC Cleared
10 6 (0.53%) HNC
10 6 (0.53%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.53%) PhD
11 5 (0.44%) HND
12 4 (0.35%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 4 (0.35%) CCA
12 4 (0.35%) Chartered Engineer
12 4 (0.35%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (6.24%) QA
2 58 (5.10%) Accessibility
3 54 (4.75%) Data Quality
4 27 (2.37%) WCAG
5 26 (2.29%) GDPR
6 21 (1.85%) PMO
7 16 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 13 (1.14%) NIST
9 10 (0.88%) SLA
10 5 (0.44%) IEC 61508
10 5 (0.44%) PERC
11 4 (0.35%) GRC
12 3 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
12 3 (0.26%) Def Stans
13 2 (0.18%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 2 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.18%) GMP
13 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 17025
13 2 (0.18%) NCSC
13 2 (0.18%) Solvency II
System Software
1 49 (4.31%) Docker
2 29 (2.55%) Active Directory
3 13 (1.14%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
5 8 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.35%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.088%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.088%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.088%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 57 (5.01%) Kubernetes
2 26 (2.29%) Grafana
3 15 (1.32%) Kibana
4 13 (1.14%) Prometheus
5 12 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (0.97%) SCCM
7 9 (0.79%) Ansible
7 9 (0.79%) SCOM
8 8 (0.70%) Microsoft Intune
9 7 (0.62%) Argo
10 5 (0.44%) Functional Safety
11 4 (0.35%) HAProxy
12 3 (0.26%) Packer
12 3 (0.26%) Podman
12 3 (0.26%) Puppet
13 2 (0.18%) Cilium
13 2 (0.18%) Istio
14 1 (0.088%) Amdocs OSS
14 1 (0.088%) PTC Integrity
14 1 (0.088%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 152 (13.37%) Microsoft
2 113 (9.94%) SAP
3 49 (4.31%) Oracle
4 44 (3.87%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.73%) Google
6 20 (1.76%) BeyondTrust
7 16 (1.41%) Atlassian
8 15 (1.32%) Databricks
9 11 (0.97%) CyberArk
9 11 (0.97%) Talend
10 10 (0.88%) Splunk
10 10 (0.88%) VMware
11 8 (0.70%) Informatica
12 7 (0.62%) IBM
13 6 (0.53%) Apple
13 6 (0.53%) Cisco
13 6 (0.53%) Salesforce
13 6 (0.53%) Workday
14 5 (0.44%) Qualtrics
14 5 (0.44%) Tenable