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 10 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 189 275 250
Rank change year-on-year +86 -25 -31
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 474 242 349
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.51% 0.89% 0.96%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.41% 2.94% 3.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 354 146 257
10th Percentile £304 £220 £350
25th Percentile £391 £357 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.27% -7.27% -
75th Percentile £625 £590 £631
90th Percentile £700 £696 £693
UK median daily rate £475 £510 £550
% change year-on-year -6.86% -7.27% -0.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 11 30
10th Percentile £14.96 £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 £66.25
90th Percentile £74.26 £67.50 £84.36
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £38.85 £53.75
% change year-on-year -13.77% -27.72% -6.52%

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 10,747 8,241 11,158
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.33% 30.47% 30.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,080 5,031 7,019
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £420 £419 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £522 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.57% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 864 388 683
10th Percentile £16.19 £19.12 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £24.79
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £51.89
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% -11.00% +15.31%
75th Percentile £58.06 £68.00 £67.78
90th Percentile £76.58 £82.33 £79.78
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £39.50 £51.89
% change year-on-year -36.33% -23.88% +15.31%

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 10 January 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 10 January 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 10 January 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
North of England +32 177 £445 -11.00% 61
London +44 140 £515 -10.48% 54
North West +36 126 £426 -20.82% 44
Midlands -2 64 £446 -4.90% 45
West Midlands -14 45 £481 +2.61% 26
Yorkshire -34 39 £481 +118.75% 13
South East -13 35 £475 +1.06% 125
South West -7 32 £555 +8.29% 84
East Midlands -2 19 £393 - 19
East of England -25 17 £468 +71.65% 81
North East +4 14 £480 -11.93% 5
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 34 (7.17%) Confluence
2 8 (1.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.69%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.05%) nginx
4 3 (0.63%) Apache
4 3 (0.63%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.42%) CMS
5 2 (0.42%) MTS
5 2 (0.42%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.21%) JBoss
6 1 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.21%) SAS
Applications
1 13 (2.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.84%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.42%) Trello
5 1 (0.21%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.21%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 38 (8.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.69%) SAP EHS
2 8 (1.69%) SAP HCM
3 7 (1.48%) Oracle EBS
4 5 (1.05%) SAP QM
4 5 (1.05%) SAP Travel Management
4 5 (1.05%) SAP VC
5 4 (0.84%) Oracle EBS R12
6 3 (0.63%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.63%) Oracle Financials
6 3 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.63%) SAP BRIM
6 3 (0.63%) SAP Hybris
6 3 (0.63%) SAP Payroll
6 3 (0.63%) SAP PSCD
7 2 (0.42%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 2 (0.42%) Oracle BPM
7 2 (0.42%) SAP EWM
7 2 (0.42%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.42%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 78 (16.46%) AWS
2 48 (10.13%) Azure
3 22 (4.64%) GitHub
4 21 (4.43%) Power Platform
5 20 (4.22%) Serverless
6 17 (3.59%) GCP
7 16 (3.38%) AWS Lambda
8 14 (2.95%) Azure DevOps
9 13 (2.74%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (2.53%) AWS CloudFormation
11 11 (2.32%) Microsoft 365
12 9 (1.90%) Power Automate
12 9 (1.90%) SaaS
13 8 (1.69%) Amazon SQS
14 7 (1.48%) Amazon EC2
14 7 (1.48%) PowerApps
14 7 (1.48%) SuccessFactors
15 6 (1.27%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 5 (1.05%) Amazon S3
17 4 (0.84%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.11%) Firewall
2 8 (1.69%) DNS
3 6 (1.27%) LAN
3 6 (1.27%) VPN
3 6 (1.27%) WAN
4 5 (1.05%) Network Security
5 4 (0.84%) MPLS
5 4 (0.84%) SSH
6 3 (0.63%) 5G
6 3 (0.63%) DHCP
6 3 (0.63%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.63%) Radio Access Network
6 3 (0.63%) SD-WAN
6 3 (0.63%) Unified Communications
6 3 (0.63%) VoIP
6 3 (0.63%) VSAN
6 3 (0.63%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.42%) Cisco Nexus
7 2 (0.42%) Modbus
7 2 (0.42%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.38%) Power BI
2 14 (2.95%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (2.32%) MongoDB
3 11 (2.32%) NoSQL
3 11 (2.32%) SQL Server
4 9 (1.90%) Redis
5 7 (1.48%) Metadata
5 7 (1.48%) Oracle Database
6 6 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (1.05%) BigQuery
7 5 (1.05%) DocumentDB
7 5 (1.05%) Tableau
8 4 (0.84%) Big Data
8 4 (0.84%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.63%) Aerospike
9 3 (0.63%) DataStage
9 3 (0.63%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.63%) GIS
9 3 (0.63%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 49 (10.34%) JIRA
2 44 (9.28%) Git
3 20 (4.22%) GitLab
4 19 (4.01%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.90%) SonarQube
6 7 (1.48%) Mockito
7 6 (1.27%) JUnit
8 5 (1.05%) Android Studio
8 5 (1.05%) Bitbucket
8 5 (1.05%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.84%) Cucumber
9 4 (0.84%) Selenium
10 3 (0.63%) Gradle
10 3 (0.63%) Postman
10 3 (0.63%) Toad
11 2 (0.42%) Babel
11 2 (0.42%) Grunt
11 2 (0.42%) gulp
11 2 (0.42%) WebDriver
11 2 (0.42%) webpack
General
1 153 (32.28%) Social Skills
2 79 (16.67%) Public Sector
3 76 (16.03%) Finance
4 39 (8.23%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (6.75%) Banking
6 16 (3.38%) Telecoms
7 15 (3.16%) Aerospace
7 15 (3.16%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (1.48%) Billing
9 7 (1.48%) Legal
10 4 (0.84%) Aviation
10 4 (0.84%) Local Government
10 4 (0.84%) Manufacturing
10 4 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.63%) Marketing
11 3 (0.63%) Retail
11 3 (0.63%) Retail Banking
12 2 (0.42%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 67 (14.14%) Developer
2 58 (12.24%) Consultant
2 58 (12.24%) Senior
3 56 (11.81%) Analyst
4 36 (7.59%) SAP Consultant
5 33 (6.96%) Architect
6 28 (5.91%) Lead
7 24 (5.06%) Business Analyst
8 17 (3.59%) Senior Developer
9 16 (3.38%) Delivery Manager
9 16 (3.38%) Java Developer
10 15 (3.16%) Management Consultant
11 14 (2.95%) Project Manager
12 12 (2.53%) Solutions Architect
13 11 (2.32%) Administrator
14 10 (2.11%) Information Security Advisor
14 10 (2.11%) Security Advisor
15 9 (1.90%) Senior Analyst
16 8 (1.69%) Programmer
16 8 (1.69%) Senior Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (4.85%) Node.js
2 20 (4.22%) REST
3 19 (4.01%) JSON
4 18 (3.80%) React
5 15 (3.16%) RESTful
6 14 (2.95%) Kafka
7 13 (2.74%) XML
8 12 (2.53%) SAP Fiori
9 10 (2.11%) pytest
9 10 (2.11%) Spring
10 9 (1.90%) .NET
10 9 (1.90%) HTML
10 9 (1.90%) Jest
10 9 (1.90%) Middleware
11 8 (1.69%) ActiveMQ
12 7 (1.48%) AngularJS
12 7 (1.48%) LDAP
12 7 (1.48%) OpenAPI
12 7 (1.48%) Spring Boot
12 7 (1.48%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 33 (6.96%) Onboarding
2 25 (5.27%) Product Ownership
3 18 (3.80%) Management Information System
4 13 (2.74%) Cloud Native
4 13 (2.74%) Security Posture
5 12 (2.53%) Legacy Systems
6 11 (2.32%) NHS
7 8 (1.69%) SCADA
8 7 (1.48%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.27%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.27%) Mobile App
10 5 (1.05%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.05%) Data Centre
10 5 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
10 5 (1.05%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.05%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.84%) Driving Licence
11 4 (0.84%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.84%) Replication
12 3 (0.63%) Handset
Operating Systems
1 45 (9.49%) Linux
2 25 (5.27%) Windows
3 19 (4.01%) Unix
4 8 (1.69%) Android
5 6 (1.27%) Mac OS X
5 6 (1.27%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.63%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.42%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.42%) Debian
7 2 (0.42%) VMS
7 2 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.21%) CentOS
8 1 (0.21%) Robot Operating System
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
1 131 (27.64%) Agile
2 80 (16.88%) Stakeholder Management
3 71 (14.98%) Problem-Solving
4 69 (14.56%) DevOps
5 64 (13.50%) CI/CD
6 51 (10.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 43 (9.07%) Test Automation
8 41 (8.65%) Microservices
9 35 (7.38%) Change Management
9 35 (7.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 33 (6.96%) Risk Management
11 32 (6.75%) Roadmaps
12 31 (6.54%) Validation
13 30 (6.33%) Scrum
14 29 (6.12%) Migration
15 26 (5.49%) Data Modelling
15 26 (5.49%) Project Management
16 25 (5.27%) AI
17 24 (5.06%) Computer Science
17 24 (5.06%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 60 (12.66%) Python
2 49 (10.34%) Java
3 47 (9.92%) SQL
4 16 (3.38%) JavaScript
5 14 (2.95%) PowerShell
6 11 (2.32%) ABAP
6 11 (2.32%) Ruby
7 10 (2.11%) PL/SQL
8 7 (1.48%) Bash
8 7 (1.48%) C#
8 7 (1.48%) C++
8 7 (1.48%) Scala
9 6 (1.27%) Go
9 6 (1.27%) TypeScript
10 4 (0.84%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.84%) R
11 2 (0.42%) COBOL
11 2 (0.42%) PHP
11 2 (0.42%) Rust
12 1 (0.21%) C
Qualifications
1 228 (48.10%) Security Cleared
2 180 (37.97%) SC Cleared
3 45 (9.49%) Degree
4 22 (4.64%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (3.16%) Master's Degree
6 11 (2.32%) BC Cleared
7 10 (2.11%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.11%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 8 (1.69%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.48%) DBS Check
10 6 (1.27%) CCNP
11 5 (1.05%) ISTQB
12 4 (0.84%) PMI Certification
12 4 (0.84%) PMP
13 3 (0.63%) CCNA
13 3 (0.63%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (0.63%) ISEB
13 3 (0.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.63%) MCP
13 3 (0.63%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (4.22%) QA
2 18 (3.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (3.38%) Accessibility
4 13 (2.74%) GRC
5 11 (2.32%) NIST
6 10 (2.11%) Def Stans
7 9 (1.90%) PMO
8 8 (1.69%) SLA
9 6 (1.27%) Data Quality
10 5 (1.05%) GDPR
10 5 (1.05%) NCSC
11 4 (0.84%) ISO 20022
11 4 (0.84%) WCAG
12 3 (0.63%) P3O
12 3 (0.63%) PSD2
13 2 (0.42%) Basel III
13 2 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 2 (0.42%) ITGC
13 2 (0.42%) SEPA
14 1 (0.21%) IFRS
System Software
1 34 (7.17%) Docker
2 17 (3.59%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.05%) vSphere
5 4 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.63%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.42%) GPFS
7 2 (0.42%) NFS
7 2 (0.42%) QEMU
7 2 (0.42%) 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 32 (6.75%) Kubernetes
2 30 (6.33%) Terraform
3 8 (1.69%) Ansible
4 5 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (1.05%) vRealize
5 4 (0.84%) Puppet
5 4 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.84%) VxRail
6 3 (0.63%) Grafana
6 3 (0.63%) Packer
6 3 (0.63%) PingFederate
6 3 (0.63%) Podman
7 2 (0.42%) Ambari
7 2 (0.42%) Argo
7 2 (0.42%) Consul
7 2 (0.42%) Istio
7 2 (0.42%) SCCM
7 2 (0.42%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.21%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.21%) SCOM
Vendors
1 69 (14.56%) SAP
2 46 (9.70%) Microsoft
3 39 (8.23%) Oracle
4 15 (3.16%) Cisco
5 14 (2.95%) VMware
6 11 (2.32%) Google
7 9 (1.90%) Atlassian
7 9 (1.90%) IBM
8 8 (1.69%) ServiceNow
9 5 (1.05%) AppDynamics
9 5 (1.05%) CyberArk
9 5 (1.05%) Databricks
9 5 (1.05%) MuleSoft
10 4 (0.84%) Adobe
10 4 (0.84%) Dell
10 4 (0.84%) Fortinet
10 4 (0.84%) webMethods
11 3 (0.63%) Juniper
11 3 (0.63%) Salesforce
11 3 (0.63%) Workday