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 21 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 187 286 249
Rank change year-on-year +99 -37 -20
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 482 246 358
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.54% 0.85% 0.97%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.53% 2.81% 3.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 354 151 254
10th Percentile £304 £220 £375
25th Percentile £400 £325 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -7.27% -
75th Percentile £627 £590 £631
90th Percentile £713 £688 £706
UK median daily rate £492 £505 £550
% change year-on-year -2.57% -8.18% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 11 30
10th Percentile £19.80 £20.00 £21.63
25th Percentile £22.63 £30.25 £29.91
Median hourly rate £33.50 £38.85 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year -13.77% -27.72% -10.42%
75th Percentile £56.69 £64.38 £72.81
90th Percentile £72.01 £67.50 £84.36
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £38.85 £53.75
% change year-on-year -13.77% -27.72% -10.42%

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 10,636 8,742 11,278
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.90% 30.36% 30.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,952 5,392 7,151
10th Percentile £313 £305 £300
25th Percentile £419 £422 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 906 412 673
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.76 £17.15
25th Percentile £19.31 £25.06 £26.78
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.71 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.16% -11.02% +16.67%
75th Percentile £56.00 £67.81 £67.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £75.39 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -37.13% -23.81% +16.67%

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 21 December 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 21 December 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 21 December 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 +40 176 £455 -6.95% 57
London +63 153 £525 -8.70% 37
North West +43 128 £438 -18.68% 48
Midlands -5 53 £450 -4.05% 17
West Midlands -6 44 £478 +1.95% 15
South East -6 36 £484 -2.81% 136
Yorkshire -32 36 £480 +118.18% 4
South West +2 35 £555 +0.91% 91
East of England -30 17 £515 +126.37% 138
North East +5 14 £480 +16.01% 5
East Midlands -11 9 £350 - 2
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 32 (6.64%) Confluence
2 9 (1.87%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.45%) SharePoint
4 5 (1.04%) nginx
5 3 (0.62%) Apache
5 3 (0.62%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.41%) CMS
6 2 (0.41%) MTS
6 2 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.21%) JBoss
7 1 (0.21%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.21%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (3.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.04%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.41%) Trello
6 1 (0.21%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.21%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 34 (7.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (2.07%) Oracle EBS
3 8 (1.66%) SAP EHS
3 8 (1.66%) SAP HCM
4 5 (1.04%) Oracle EBS R12
4 5 (1.04%) Oracle Financials
4 5 (1.04%) SAP QM
4 5 (1.04%) SAP VC
5 4 (0.83%) Maximo
5 4 (0.83%) Oracle Cash Management
5 4 (0.83%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.83%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.83%) Oracle SCM
6 3 (0.62%) Oracle ASCP
6 3 (0.62%) SAP BRIM
6 3 (0.62%) SAP Hybris
6 3 (0.62%) SAP Payroll
6 3 (0.62%) SAP PSCD
7 2 (0.41%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 2 (0.41%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 73 (15.15%) AWS
2 53 (11.00%) Azure
3 20 (4.15%) GitHub
3 20 (4.15%) Serverless
4 19 (3.94%) Power Platform
5 17 (3.53%) GCP
6 16 (3.32%) AWS Lambda
7 14 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (2.49%) AWS CloudFormation
8 12 (2.49%) Microsoft 365
9 10 (2.07%) GitHub Actions
9 10 (2.07%) Power Automate
10 9 (1.87%) SaaS
11 8 (1.66%) Amazon SQS
11 8 (1.66%) PowerApps
12 7 (1.45%) Amazon EC2
12 7 (1.45%) Entra ID
12 7 (1.45%) SuccessFactors
13 6 (1.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 5 (1.04%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.70%) Firewall
2 9 (1.87%) DNS
3 7 (1.45%) LAN
3 7 (1.45%) VPN
4 6 (1.24%) Network Security
4 6 (1.24%) 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%) DHCP
6 3 (0.62%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.62%) OSPF
6 3 (0.62%) Radio Access Network
6 3 (0.62%) Unified Communications
6 3 (0.62%) VLAN
6 3 (0.62%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.90%) Power BI
2 13 (2.70%) SQL Server
3 12 (2.49%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (2.28%) MongoDB
4 11 (2.28%) NoSQL
5 7 (1.45%) Oracle Database
6 6 (1.24%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.24%) Metadata
6 6 (1.24%) Redis
7 5 (1.04%) BigQuery
7 5 (1.04%) DocumentDB
7 5 (1.04%) Tableau
8 4 (0.83%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.62%) Big Data
9 3 (0.62%) DataStage
9 3 (0.62%) GIS
9 3 (0.62%) SAP HANA
9 3 (0.62%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 2 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.41%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 45 (9.34%) JIRA
2 42 (8.71%) Git
3 18 (3.73%) GitLab
4 16 (3.32%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.87%) SonarQube
6 7 (1.45%) Mockito
7 5 (1.04%) Android Studio
7 5 (1.04%) Bitbucket
7 5 (1.04%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.83%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.83%) Gradle
8 4 (0.83%) Selenium
9 3 (0.62%) JUnit
9 3 (0.62%) Postman
9 3 (0.62%) Toad
10 2 (0.41%) Grunt
10 2 (0.41%) gulp
10 2 (0.41%) JMeter
10 2 (0.41%) WebDriver
10 2 (0.41%) webpack
General
1 146 (30.29%) Social Skills
2 81 (16.80%) Public Sector
3 71 (14.73%) Finance
4 34 (7.05%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (4.77%) Banking
6 21 (4.36%) Aerospace
7 15 (3.11%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.49%) Telecoms
9 11 (2.28%) Aviation
10 9 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.45%) Billing
11 7 (1.45%) Legal
12 6 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (1.04%) Manufacturing
14 4 (0.83%) Local Government
15 3 (0.62%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.62%) Marketing
15 3 (0.62%) Police
15 3 (0.62%) Retail
Job Titles
1 68 (14.11%) Developer
2 61 (12.66%) Senior
3 60 (12.45%) Consultant
4 51 (10.58%) Analyst
5 35 (7.26%) Architect
6 33 (6.85%) SAP Consultant
7 27 (5.60%) Lead
8 19 (3.94%) Business Analyst
9 17 (3.53%) Delivery Manager
9 17 (3.53%) Java Developer
9 17 (3.53%) Senior Developer
10 16 (3.32%) Administrator
11 13 (2.70%) Solutions Architect
12 12 (2.49%) Project Manager
12 12 (2.49%) Senior Analyst
13 11 (2.28%) Management Consultant
14 10 (2.07%) Information Security Advisor
14 10 (2.07%) Security Advisor
15 9 (1.87%) Network Engineer
15 9 (1.87%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.94%) Node.js
2 18 (3.73%) React
3 17 (3.53%) REST
4 16 (3.32%) JSON
5 14 (2.90%) RESTful
6 12 (2.49%) SAP Fiori
7 11 (2.28%) Kafka
7 11 (2.28%) XML
8 10 (2.07%) Spring
9 9 (1.87%) .NET
9 9 (1.87%) HTML
10 8 (1.66%) ActiveMQ
11 7 (1.45%) AngularJS
11 7 (1.45%) LDAP
11 7 (1.45%) Middleware
11 7 (1.45%) pytest
11 7 (1.45%) Spring Boot
12 6 (1.24%) Jest
12 6 (1.24%) Playwright
13 5 (1.04%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 36 (7.47%) Onboarding
2 22 (4.56%) Product Ownership
3 18 (3.73%) Management Information System
4 13 (2.70%) Security Posture
5 12 (2.49%) NHS
6 10 (2.07%) Cloud Native
7 9 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
8 8 (1.66%) SCADA
9 6 (1.24%) Mobile App
10 5 (1.04%) AI Agents
10 5 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.04%) Data Centre
10 5 (1.04%) Linux Command Line
10 5 (1.04%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.04%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
11 4 (0.83%) Driving Licence
11 4 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
11 4 (0.83%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.83%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 41 (8.51%) Linux
2 25 (5.19%) Windows
3 20 (4.15%) Unix
4 8 (1.66%) Android
5 6 (1.24%) Mac OS X
5 6 (1.24%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.41%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.41%) VMS
7 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.21%) CentOS
8 1 (0.21%) Robot Operating System
8 1 (0.21%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.21%) VME
8 1 (0.21%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.21%) Windows 8
8 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (25.52%) Agile
2 68 (14.11%) Stakeholder Management
3 66 (13.69%) DevOps
4 63 (13.07%) Problem-Solving
5 58 (12.03%) CI/CD
6 45 (9.34%) Continuous Improvement
7 44 (9.13%) Test Automation
8 39 (8.09%) Change Management
9 35 (7.26%) Microservices
10 32 (6.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 29 (6.02%) Migration
11 29 (6.02%) Scrum
12 28 (5.81%) AI
12 28 (5.81%) Roadmaps
12 28 (5.81%) Validation
13 25 (5.19%) TDD
14 24 (4.98%) Risk Management
15 22 (4.56%) Computer Science
15 22 (4.56%) Containerisation
15 22 (4.56%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 57 (11.83%) Python
2 46 (9.54%) Java
3 43 (8.92%) SQL
4 15 (3.11%) JavaScript
5 11 (2.28%) ABAP
5 11 (2.28%) PL/SQL
5 11 (2.28%) PowerShell
5 11 (2.28%) Ruby
6 8 (1.66%) C++
7 7 (1.45%) Bash
8 6 (1.24%) C#
8 6 (1.24%) Go
8 6 (1.24%) Scala
8 6 (1.24%) TypeScript
9 5 (1.04%) R
10 4 (0.83%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.41%) COBOL
11 2 (0.41%) PHP
11 2 (0.41%) Rust
12 1 (0.21%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 242 (50.21%) Security Cleared
2 186 (38.59%) SC Cleared
3 35 (7.26%) Degree
4 19 (3.94%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (2.49%) Master's Degree
6 11 (2.28%) BC Cleared
7 10 (2.07%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.07%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 9 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (1.66%) DBS Check
10 7 (1.45%) CCNP
11 5 (1.04%) ISTQB
12 4 (0.83%) ISEB
12 4 (0.83%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.62%) Azure Certification
13 3 (0.62%) CCNA
13 3 (0.62%) MCP
13 3 (0.62%) SAP Certification
14 2 (0.41%) CISSP
14 2 (0.41%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.77%) QA
2 16 (3.32%) Accessibility
3 14 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (2.28%) GRC
5 10 (2.07%) Def Stans
6 8 (1.66%) SLA
7 7 (1.45%) NIST
7 7 (1.45%) PMO
8 5 (1.04%) Data Quality
8 5 (1.04%) GDPR
8 5 (1.04%) NCSC
9 4 (0.83%) ISO 20022
9 4 (0.83%) WCAG
10 3 (0.62%) PSD2
11 2 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 2 (0.41%) ITGC
11 2 (0.41%) SEPA
12 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.21%) ECSS
12 1 (0.21%) P3O
System Software
1 34 (7.05%) Docker
2 19 (3.94%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.04%) vSphere
5 4 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.62%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.41%) GPFS
7 2 (0.41%) NFS
7 2 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.21%) ACF2
8 1 (0.21%) HDFS
8 1 (0.21%) Postfix
8 1 (0.21%) RACF
8 1 (0.21%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 33 (6.85%) Kubernetes
2 30 (6.22%) Terraform
3 6 (1.24%) Ansible
3 6 (1.24%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (1.04%) vRealize
5 4 (0.83%) Puppet
5 4 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.83%) VxRail
6 3 (0.62%) Grafana
6 3 (0.62%) Packer
6 3 (0.62%) PingFederate
7 2 (0.41%) Ambari
7 2 (0.41%) Argo
7 2 (0.41%) Consul
7 2 (0.41%) FortiGate
7 2 (0.41%) Istio
7 2 (0.41%) SCCM
7 2 (0.41%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.21%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.21%) Podman
Vendors
1 72 (14.94%) SAP
2 59 (12.24%) Microsoft
3 45 (9.34%) Oracle
4 17 (3.53%) Cisco
5 14 (2.90%) VMware
6 12 (2.49%) ServiceNow
7 11 (2.28%) IBM
8 10 (2.07%) Google
9 9 (1.87%) Atlassian
10 6 (1.24%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.04%) AppDynamics
11 5 (1.04%) webMethods
11 5 (1.04%) Workday
12 4 (0.83%) Dell
13 3 (0.62%) Adobe
13 3 (0.62%) Broadcom
13 3 (0.62%) HP
13 3 (0.62%) Juniper
13 3 (0.62%) Palo Alto
13 3 (0.62%) Thales