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

6 months to
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 177 280 269
Rank change year-on-year +103 -11 -39
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 492 264 358
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.60% 0.85% 0.93%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.77% 2.82% 3.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 366 152 239
10th Percentile £303 £220 £359
25th Percentile £376 £373 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £627 £600 £631
90th Percentile £713 £668 £709
UK median daily rate £492 £500 £548
% change year-on-year -1.60% -8.68% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 13 31
10th Percentile £19.90 £20.90 £24.25
25th Percentile £22.63 £35.00 £31.53
Median hourly rate £33.50 £38.85 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.77% -29.36% -8.33%
75th Percentile £50.74 £65.00 £77.72
90th Percentile £71.73 - £84.36
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £37.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -9.46% -32.73% -8.33%

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 10,306 9,346 11,553
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.51% 29.94% 30.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,688 5,685 7,341
10th Percentile £306 £313 £308
25th Percentile £415 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £737 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 896 450 703
10th Percentile £17.69 £20.11 £17.72
25th Percentile £19.04 £26.44 £27.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £53.67
Median % change year-on-year -49.70% -6.83% +19.26%
75th Percentile £53.75 £68.00 £69.19
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.49 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £42.94 £53.68
% change year-on-year -41.43% -20.01% +19.29%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 +61 188 £469 +10.48% 49
London +44 139 £501 -11.81% 53
North West +56 138 £450 -10.45% 32
Midlands -2 58 £455 -9.00% 24
South East +10 42 £456 +8.63% 166
West Midlands -15 42 £488 +3.72% 20
South West +11 38 £560 -5.08% 97
Yorkshire -21 38 £500 +127.27% 10
East of England -24 19 £515 +134.09% 113
East Midlands -1 16 £416 -32.15% 4
North East +3 14 £488 +17.82% 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 (7.11%) Confluence
2 9 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.22%) nginx
3 6 (1.22%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.81%) Apache
5 3 (0.61%) 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 (0.20%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.20%) JBoss
7 1 (0.20%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.20%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (3.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.42%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.81%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.61%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.61%) Photoshop
4 3 (0.61%) Siemens NX
4 3 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.41%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.41%) Sketch
5 2 (0.41%) Trello
6 1 (0.20%) Fusion 360
6 1 (0.20%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.20%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 32 (6.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.83%) Oracle EBS
3 8 (1.63%) SAP EHS
4 6 (1.22%) SAP HCM
5 5 (1.02%) Oracle EBS R12
5 5 (1.02%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (1.02%) SAP QM
5 5 (1.02%) SAP VC
6 4 (0.81%) Maximo
6 4 (0.81%) Oracle Cash Management
6 4 (0.81%) Oracle ERP
6 4 (0.81%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.81%) Oracle SCM
7 3 (0.61%) Oracle ASCP
7 3 (0.61%) SAP BRIM
7 3 (0.61%) SAP Hybris
7 3 (0.61%) SAP PSCD
7 3 (0.61%) Teamcenter
8 2 (0.41%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 2 (0.41%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 69 (14.02%) AWS
2 53 (10.77%) Azure
3 20 (4.07%) Serverless
4 17 (3.46%) GitHub
5 16 (3.25%) AWS Lambda
6 15 (3.05%) Power Platform
7 13 (2.64%) GCP
8 12 (2.44%) SuccessFactors
9 11 (2.24%) AWS CloudFormation
10 10 (2.03%) Microsoft 365
11 9 (1.83%) Amazon EC2
11 9 (1.83%) Amazon SQS
11 9 (1.83%) Azure DevOps
12 8 (1.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 8 (1.63%) Entra ID
12 8 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (1.63%) SaaS
13 7 (1.42%) Amazon S3
13 7 (1.42%) PaaS
13 7 (1.42%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.64%) Firewall
2 9 (1.83%) DNS
3 7 (1.42%) Network Security
4 6 (1.22%) LAN
4 6 (1.22%) VPN
5 5 (1.02%) WAN
6 4 (0.81%) MPLS
6 4 (0.81%) SD-WAN
6 4 (0.81%) SSH
6 4 (0.81%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.61%) 5G
7 3 (0.61%) BGP
7 3 (0.61%) Cisco Nexus
7 3 (0.61%) DHCP
7 3 (0.61%) OpenLDAP
7 3 (0.61%) OSPF
7 3 (0.61%) Radio Access Network
7 3 (0.61%) Unified Communications
7 3 (0.61%) VLAN
7 3 (0.61%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.44%) PostgreSQL
1 12 (2.44%) Power BI
2 10 (2.03%) MongoDB
2 10 (2.03%) NoSQL
3 7 (1.42%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (1.22%) Metadata
4 6 (1.22%) Oracle Database
4 6 (1.22%) SQL Server
5 5 (1.02%) Redis
6 4 (0.81%) BigQuery
6 4 (0.81%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.81%) DocumentDB
6 4 (0.81%) Hadoop
6 4 (0.81%) Tableau
7 3 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.61%) Big Data
7 3 (0.61%) DynamoDB
7 3 (0.61%) Looker
7 3 (0.61%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.61%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 51 (10.37%) JIRA
2 44 (8.94%) Git
3 18 (3.66%) GitLab
3 18 (3.66%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.44%) Cucumber
5 9 (1.83%) JUnit
5 9 (1.83%) SonarQube
6 7 (1.42%) Mockito
7 6 (1.22%) Cypress.io
8 5 (1.02%) Bitbucket
8 5 (1.02%) Selenium
9 4 (0.81%) Gradle
9 4 (0.81%) Grunt
9 4 (0.81%) gulp
10 3 (0.61%) Android Studio
10 3 (0.61%) JMeter
10 3 (0.61%) Maven
10 3 (0.61%) Toad
10 3 (0.61%) webpack
11 2 (0.41%) WebDriver
General
1 146 (29.67%) Social Skills
2 79 (16.06%) Finance
3 76 (15.45%) Public Sector
4 39 (7.93%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (5.28%) Banking
6 21 (4.27%) Aerospace
7 16 (3.25%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.44%) Aviation
8 12 (2.44%) Telecoms
9 9 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.42%) Billing
11 7 (1.42%) Legal
12 5 (1.02%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.81%) Local Government
14 3 (0.61%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.61%) Investment Banking
14 3 (0.61%) Marketing
14 3 (0.61%) Police
Job Titles
1 75 (15.24%) Developer
2 64 (13.01%) Consultant
3 49 (9.96%) Senior
4 45 (9.15%) Analyst
5 39 (7.93%) Architect
6 36 (7.32%) SAP Consultant
7 27 (5.49%) Lead
8 20 (4.07%) Java Developer
9 17 (3.46%) Business Analyst
10 16 (3.25%) Administrator
10 16 (3.25%) Delivery Manager
10 16 (3.25%) Solutions Architect
11 13 (2.64%) Senior Developer
12 12 (2.44%) Project Manager
13 10 (2.03%) Designer
13 10 (2.03%) Information Security Advisor
13 10 (2.03%) Management Consultant
13 10 (2.03%) Security Advisor
13 10 (2.03%) Senior Analyst
14 9 (1.83%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (4.67%) React
1 23 (4.67%) REST
2 17 (3.46%) Node.js
3 16 (3.25%) JSON
4 15 (3.05%) RESTful
5 13 (2.64%) HTML
5 13 (2.64%) Kafka
5 13 (2.64%) Spring
6 12 (2.44%) SAP Fiori
7 10 (2.03%) Jest
7 10 (2.03%) XML
8 9 (1.83%) AngularJS
8 9 (1.83%) CSS
9 8 (1.63%) ActiveMQ
9 8 (1.63%) Spring Boot
10 7 (1.42%) HTML5
10 7 (1.42%) LDAP
11 6 (1.22%) .NET
11 6 (1.22%) CSS3
11 6 (1.22%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 42 (8.54%) Onboarding
2 23 (4.67%) Product Ownership
3 18 (3.66%) Management Information System
4 13 (2.64%) Security Posture
5 9 (1.83%) Cloud Native
5 9 (1.83%) NHS
6 8 (1.63%) Mobile App
6 8 (1.63%) SCADA
7 6 (1.22%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (1.02%) AI Agents
8 5 (1.02%) Cyber Threat
8 5 (1.02%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.02%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.02%) Public Cloud
9 4 (0.81%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (0.81%) Driving Licence
9 4 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (0.81%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 36 (7.32%) Linux
2 23 (4.67%) Windows
3 20 (4.07%) Unix
4 7 (1.42%) Android
5 6 (1.22%) Mac OS X
6 5 (1.02%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.81%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.20%) CentOS
10 1 (0.20%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.20%) VME
10 1 (0.20%) VMS
10 1 (0.20%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.20%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.20%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (27.44%) Agile
2 72 (14.63%) Stakeholder Management
3 69 (14.02%) Problem-Solving
4 56 (11.38%) DevOps
5 52 (10.57%) CI/CD
6 42 (8.54%) Continuous Improvement
6 42 (8.54%) Test Automation
7 38 (7.72%) Microservices
8 37 (7.52%) Change Management
9 36 (7.32%) Scrum
10 31 (6.30%) Roadmaps
11 30 (6.10%) Migration
11 30 (6.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 27 (5.49%) Risk Management
12 27 (5.49%) User Acceptance Testing
12 27 (5.49%) Validation
13 25 (5.08%) Analytics
14 24 (4.88%) AI
15 23 (4.67%) Mentoring
16 22 (4.47%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 59 (11.99%) Python
2 49 (9.96%) Java
3 39 (7.93%) SQL
4 17 (3.46%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.64%) PowerShell
6 11 (2.24%) TypeScript
7 10 (2.03%) Ruby
8 9 (1.83%) ABAP
9 8 (1.63%) C++
9 8 (1.63%) PL/SQL
10 7 (1.42%) Bash
11 6 (1.22%) Go
11 6 (1.22%) Scala
12 5 (1.02%) R
13 3 (0.61%) Apex Code
13 3 (0.61%) C#
13 3 (0.61%) Kotlin
13 3 (0.61%) PHP
14 2 (0.41%) COBOL
14 2 (0.41%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 268 (54.47%) Security Cleared
2 194 (39.43%) SC Cleared
3 34 (6.91%) Degree
4 18 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (2.64%) DV Cleared
6 12 (2.44%) Master's Degree
7 11 (2.24%) BC Cleared
8 10 (2.03%) DBS Check
8 10 (2.03%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 9 (1.83%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.42%) CCNP
11 5 (1.02%) CISM
12 4 (0.81%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.81%) ISEB
12 4 (0.81%) ISTQB
12 4 (0.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.61%) CCNA
13 3 (0.61%) MCP
13 3 (0.61%) SAP Certification
14 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (5.69%) QA
2 20 (4.07%) Accessibility
3 17 (3.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (2.24%) GRC
5 10 (2.03%) Def Stans
6 7 (1.42%) Data Quality
6 7 (1.42%) NIST
6 7 (1.42%) PMO
7 6 (1.22%) GDPR
7 6 (1.22%) SLA
8 5 (1.02%) NCSC
8 5 (1.02%) WCAG
9 4 (0.81%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.61%) PSD2
11 2 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 2 (0.41%) SEPA
12 1 (0.20%) ECSS
12 1 (0.20%) P3O
12 1 (0.20%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.20%) RMADS
System Software
1 33 (6.71%) Docker
2 19 (3.86%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.83%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.81%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.61%) vSphere
6 1 (0.20%) ACF2
6 1 (0.20%) GPFS
6 1 (0.20%) HDFS
6 1 (0.20%) NFS
6 1 (0.20%) Postfix
6 1 (0.20%) RACF
6 1 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
6 1 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 30 (6.10%) Kubernetes
2 24 (4.88%) Terraform
3 6 (1.22%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (1.02%) Ansible
5 4 (0.81%) Grafana
5 4 (0.81%) Packer
5 4 (0.81%) Puppet
5 4 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.61%) Consul
6 3 (0.61%) PingFederate
6 3 (0.61%) vRealize
7 2 (0.41%) Ambari
7 2 (0.41%) FortiGate
7 2 (0.41%) SCCM
7 2 (0.41%) VxRail
7 2 (0.41%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.20%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.20%) Podman
8 1 (0.20%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.20%) SCOM
Vendors
1 75 (15.24%) SAP
2 54 (10.98%) Microsoft
3 39 (7.93%) Oracle
4 15 (3.05%) Cisco
4 15 (3.05%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.85%) VMware
6 10 (2.03%) Google
7 9 (1.83%) Atlassian
7 9 (1.83%) IBM
8 8 (1.63%) Adobe
9 6 (1.22%) Fortinet
10 5 (1.02%) AppDynamics
10 5 (1.02%) webMethods
10 5 (1.02%) Workday
11 4 (0.81%) MuleSoft
11 4 (0.81%) Salesforce
11 4 (0.81%) Siemens
12 3 (0.61%) Dell
12 3 (0.61%) Juniper
12 3 (0.61%) Perforce