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 3 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 182 256
Rank change year-on-year +83 +74 -15
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,251 431 298
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.69% 1.54% 0.92%
As % of the Qualifications category 8.36% 4.85% 3.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 899 319 180
10th Percentile £360 £310 £219
25th Percentile £433 £402 £366
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £608 £627 £588
90th Percentile £676 £716 £643
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.05% +0.05% -8.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 41 15
10th Percentile £17.56 £20.00 £14.48
25th Percentile £37.25 £22.63 £20.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £33.50 £38.85
Median % change year-on-year +31.22% -13.77% -32.92%
75th Percentile £53.22 £44.00 £64.38
90th Percentile £72.58 £73.75 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £21.59
% change year-on-year +50.19% +35.57% -62.72%

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 14,960 8,884 9,649
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.16% 31.70% 29.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,980 5,639 5,867
10th Percentile £350 £300 £318
25th Percentile £447 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £713 £734
UK median daily rate £530 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +0.95% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,272 733 532
10th Percentile £17.63 £17.87 £18.13
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £30.00
Median hourly rate £51.25 £25.15 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +103.78% -52.10% -0.94%
75th Percentile £73.81 £43.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £73.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £46.80 £25.15 £48.18
% change year-on-year +86.08% -47.80% -10.08%

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 3 October 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 3 October 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 3 October 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 +103 373 £525 +4.95% 256
North of England +16 332 £490 -0.41% 164
Midlands +63 309 £488 -6.79% 138
West Midlands +69 298 £488 -7.14% 90
North West -5 176 £510 +8.74% 87
North East +18 96 £463 -5.13% 36
South East -21 91 £480 -6.80% 202
South West +5 78 £513 - 143
Yorkshire +1 77 £475 -5.00% 45
East of England +13 54 £578 -4.30% 150
East Midlands -28 11 £600 +21.95% 48
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 51 (4.08%) Confluence
2 23 (1.84%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.64%) CMS
3 8 (0.64%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.48%) Headless CMS
4 6 (0.48%) SAS
4 6 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
4 6 (0.48%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.40%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.32%) WordPress
7 2 (0.16%) Cloud Foundry
7 2 (0.16%) Ethereum
7 2 (0.16%) Hyperledger
7 2 (0.16%) LiveCycle
7 2 (0.16%) OpenROAD
7 2 (0.16%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.080%) CICS
8 1 (0.080%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.080%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 34 (2.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (0.64%) Windchill
5 7 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.24%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.24%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.16%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.080%) InVision
8 1 (0.080%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.080%) Revit
8 1 (0.080%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.080%) Sketch
8 1 (0.080%) Trello
Business Applications
1 41 (3.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (1.60%) SAP HR
3 13 (1.04%) SAP Payroll
3 13 (1.04%) SAP PSCD
4 12 (0.96%) SAP BRIM
4 12 (0.96%) SAP HCM
5 8 (0.64%) SAP PP
6 7 (0.56%) SAP FI
7 6 (0.48%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.40%) Exchequer
8 5 (0.40%) SAP Hybris
8 5 (0.40%) SAP IBP
9 4 (0.32%) SAP Convergent Charging
10 3 (0.24%) SAP CO
10 3 (0.24%) SAP FI/CO
10 3 (0.24%) SAP FI-CA
10 3 (0.24%) SAP Travel Management
10 3 (0.24%) Shopify
11 2 (0.16%) Oracle Receivables
11 2 (0.16%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 193 (15.43%) AWS
2 167 (13.35%) Azure
3 60 (4.80%) Power Platform
4 49 (3.92%) GitHub
5 37 (2.96%) Azure DevOps
6 36 (2.88%) Microsoft 365
7 35 (2.80%) GCP
8 34 (2.72%) Serverless
9 30 (2.40%) Amazon S3
10 28 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
11 27 (2.16%) AWS Lambda
12 24 (1.92%) Entra ID
12 24 (1.92%) SuccessFactors
13 16 (1.28%) PowerApps
14 15 (1.20%) Power Automate
15 13 (1.04%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 13 (1.04%) Azure Monitor
16 12 (0.96%) GitHub Copilot
17 11 (0.88%) OneDrive
18 9 (0.72%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 12 (0.96%) DNS
2 10 (0.80%) SSL
2 10 (0.80%) WebEx
3 9 (0.72%) Network Security
4 8 (0.64%) Cisco IPT
4 8 (0.64%) Intranet
5 7 (0.56%) 5G
5 7 (0.56%) Firewall
5 7 (0.56%) Radio Access Network
5 7 (0.56%) Wireshark
6 6 (0.48%) Ethernet
6 6 (0.48%) WAN
7 5 (0.40%) 3GPP
7 5 (0.40%) NGN
7 5 (0.40%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.40%) tcpdump
7 5 (0.40%) VPN
8 4 (0.32%) DHCP
9 3 (0.24%) Internet
9 3 (0.24%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (3.12%) Power BI
2 32 (2.56%) MongoDB
3 26 (2.08%) Metadata
4 25 (2.00%) SQL Server
5 24 (1.92%) Data Warehouse
6 20 (1.60%) PostgreSQL
7 19 (1.52%) MySQL
8 15 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
8 15 (1.20%) Oracle Database
8 15 (1.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 11 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
10 10 (0.80%) Amazon Aurora
10 10 (0.80%) NoSQL
11 9 (0.72%) Amazon Athena
11 9 (0.72%) DynamoDB
12 8 (0.64%) Data Lake
13 7 (0.56%) Big Data
13 7 (0.56%) SAP BW
13 7 (0.56%) Tableau
14 6 (0.48%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 88 (7.03%) JIRA
2 78 (6.24%) GitLab
3 77 (6.16%) Git
4 33 (2.64%) JUnit
5 30 (2.40%) Selenium
6 29 (2.32%) Cucumber
7 26 (2.08%) Jenkins
8 23 (1.84%) Maven
9 21 (1.68%) Gatling
9 21 (1.68%) SonarQube
10 11 (0.88%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 11 (0.88%) Mockito
11 10 (0.80%) Rational DOORS
11 10 (0.80%) Team Foundation Server
11 10 (0.80%) Visual Studio
12 9 (0.72%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.72%) Postman
13 7 (0.56%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.40%) REST Assured
15 4 (0.32%) Artifactory
General
1 430 (34.37%) Social Skills
2 340 (27.18%) Public Sector
3 192 (15.35%) Finance
4 121 (9.67%) Analytical Skills
5 96 (7.67%) Legal
5 96 (7.67%) Organisational Skills
6 41 (3.28%) Aerospace
7 31 (2.48%) Manufacturing
8 28 (2.24%) Influencing Skills
9 26 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
10 25 (2.00%) Presentation Skills
11 23 (1.84%) Telecoms
12 20 (1.60%) Banking
12 20 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 18 (1.44%) Billing
14 15 (1.20%) Military
15 12 (0.96%) Local Government
16 11 (0.88%) Avionics
17 9 (0.72%) Aviation
17 9 (0.72%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 148 (11.83%) Senior
2 128 (10.23%) Lead
3 127 (10.15%) Developer
4 121 (9.67%) Architect
5 93 (7.43%) Analyst
6 81 (6.47%) Consultant
7 57 (4.56%) Designer
8 53 (4.24%) SAP Consultant
9 43 (3.44%) Business Analyst
10 42 (3.36%) Data Engineer
11 38 (3.04%) Delivery Manager
11 38 (3.04%) Solutions Architect
12 35 (2.80%) Java Developer
13 34 (2.72%) Technical Architect
14 31 (2.48%) Product Manager
15 30 (2.40%) Administrator
16 28 (2.24%) DevOps Engineer
16 28 (2.24%) Java Engineer
17 25 (2.00%) User Researcher
18 22 (1.76%) Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (5.36%) Terraform
2 64 (5.12%) Spring
3 44 (3.52%) Spring Boot
4 41 (3.28%) REST
5 39 (3.12%) React
6 38 (3.04%) Playwright
7 30 (2.40%) Node.js
8 28 (2.24%) HTML
8 28 (2.24%) OpenAPI
9 23 (1.84%) RESTful
10 22 (1.76%) Kafka
11 20 (1.60%) CSS
12 17 (1.36%) Swagger
13 16 (1.28%) Gherkin
13 16 (1.28%) JSON
13 16 (1.28%) OAuth
14 15 (1.20%) .NET
14 15 (1.20%) Web Services
15 14 (1.12%) XML
16 13 (1.04%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 91 (7.27%) Onboarding
2 80 (6.39%) Web Conferencing
3 79 (6.31%) Virtual Team
4 70 (5.60%) Podcast
5 63 (5.04%) Product Ownership
6 46 (3.68%) Cloud Native
7 20 (1.60%) Mobile App
8 18 (1.44%) NHS
9 17 (1.36%) BYOD
9 17 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
9 17 (1.36%) Management Information System
10 15 (1.20%) Replication
11 14 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
11 14 (1.12%) Self-Motivation
12 11 (0.88%) Algorithms
13 10 (0.80%) Data Centre
13 10 (0.80%) Driving Licence
13 10 (0.80%) Taxonomies
13 10 (0.80%) Video Conferencing
14 9 (0.72%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 53 (4.24%) Windows
2 41 (3.28%) Linux
3 21 (1.68%) Unix
4 14 (1.12%) Android
4 14 (1.12%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.88%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.72%) Windows 10
7 7 (0.56%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.48%) VMS
9 1 (0.080%) AIX
9 1 (0.080%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.080%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.080%) Solaris
9 1 (0.080%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 393 (31.41%) Agile
2 275 (21.98%) Stakeholder Management
3 176 (14.07%) CI/CD
4 156 (12.47%) Continuous Improvement
5 149 (11.91%) DevOps
6 147 (11.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 140 (11.19%) Problem-Solving
8 131 (10.47%) Scrum
9 103 (8.23%) Decision-Making
10 100 (7.99%) AI
11 95 (7.59%) Roadmaps
12 93 (7.43%) Customer Service
13 89 (7.11%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 89 (7.11%) Test Automation
14 88 (7.03%) Analytics
15 82 (6.55%) Migration
16 78 (6.24%) Mentoring
17 75 (6.00%) Microservices
18 68 (5.44%) User Research
18 68 (5.44%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 140 (11.19%) Java
2 124 (9.91%) SQL
3 103 (8.23%) Python
4 53 (4.24%) JavaScript
5 30 (2.40%) Scala
6 27 (2.16%) PowerShell
7 25 (2.00%) Shell Script
8 20 (1.60%) TypeScript
9 18 (1.44%) Bash
10 14 (1.12%) PL/SQL
11 13 (1.04%) ABAP
12 12 (0.96%) C#
13 11 (0.88%) VB
13 11 (0.88%) VB6
14 10 (0.80%) T-SQL
15 8 (0.64%) C++
16 7 (0.56%) VBA
17 6 (0.48%) R
18 5 (0.40%) Go
18 5 (0.40%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 467 (37.33%) Security Cleared
2 359 (28.70%) SC Cleared
3 73 (5.84%) Degree
4 18 (1.44%) Azure Certification
5 17 (1.36%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (1.20%) AWS Certification
7 14 (1.12%) DBS Check
8 12 (0.96%) A+ Certification
8 12 (0.96%) DV Cleared
9 8 (0.64%) HNC
9 8 (0.64%) HND
9 8 (0.64%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 7 (0.56%) PMI Certification
11 6 (0.48%) CTC Cleared
11 6 (0.48%) Master's Degree
11 6 (0.48%) PhD
12 5 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (0.40%) Chartered Engineer
12 5 (0.40%) ISTQB
13 4 (0.32%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (6.95%) QA
2 70 (5.60%) Accessibility
3 50 (4.00%) Data Quality
4 35 (2.80%) WCAG
5 26 (2.08%) GDPR
6 20 (1.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 19 (1.52%) PMO
8 14 (1.12%) NIST
9 10 (0.80%) SLA
10 8 (0.64%) IEC 61508
11 6 (0.48%) NCSC
12 5 (0.40%) GRC
12 5 (0.40%) PERC
13 4 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
14 3 (0.24%) Def Stans
15 2 (0.16%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 17025
15 2 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 2 (0.16%) Solvency II
System Software
1 65 (5.20%) Docker
2 28 (2.24%) Active Directory
3 12 (0.96%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
4 7 (0.56%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.32%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.24%) Firmware
7 1 (0.080%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 78 (6.24%) Kubernetes
2 27 (2.16%) Grafana
3 20 (1.60%) Kibana
4 15 (1.20%) Prometheus
5 12 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (0.88%) SCCM
7 9 (0.72%) SCOM
8 8 (0.64%) Ansible
8 8 (0.64%) Functional Safety
9 7 (0.56%) Argo
9 7 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
10 3 (0.24%) HAProxy
10 3 (0.24%) Podman
10 3 (0.24%) Puppet
11 2 (0.16%) Cilium
11 2 (0.16%) Istio
11 2 (0.16%) Packer
12 1 (0.080%) Amdocs OSS
12 1 (0.080%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.080%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 159 (12.71%) Microsoft
2 120 (9.59%) SAP
3 67 (5.36%) Oracle
4 41 (3.28%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.48%) Google
6 19 (1.52%) BeyondTrust
7 16 (1.28%) Atlassian
8 13 (1.04%) Talend
9 12 (0.96%) IBM
10 11 (0.88%) CyberArk
10 11 (0.88%) Databricks
11 10 (0.80%) Splunk
12 9 (0.72%) Informatica
13 8 (0.64%) Siemens
14 7 (0.56%) EMC
14 7 (0.56%) VMware
15 6 (0.48%) Cisco
15 6 (0.48%) Concur
15 6 (0.48%) Dell
15 6 (0.48%) Workday