BPSS Clearance Contract Job Trends

Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Clearance
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for BPSS Clearance qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 25 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 154 265 247
Rank change year-on-year +111 -18 -19
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 624 328 499
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.86% 0.89% 1.04%
As % of the Qualifications category 5.73% 3.02% 3.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 451 181 317
10th Percentile £309 £220 £353
25th Percentile £400 £387 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -
75th Percentile £588 £599 £638
90th Percentile £713 £661 £716
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £465 £550
% change year-on-year +5.81% -15.45% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 17 31
10th Percentile £20.00 - £16.66
25th Percentile £22.63 £20.12 £24.75
Median hourly rate £29.27 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.37% -36.36% +10.00%
75th Percentile £42.16 £57.50 £79.19
90th Percentile £61.69 £65.00 £84.36
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.27 £35.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -16.37% -36.36% +10.00%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

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.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 10,882 10,853 13,598
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.36% 29.36% 28.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,863 6,596 8,747
10th Percentile £289 £311 £313
25th Percentile £413 £420 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £635 £650
90th Percentile £708 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £516 £538
% change year-on-year -3.10% -4.00% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 922 521 753
10th Percentile £17.08 £18.13 £16.62
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.50 £26.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £53.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.05% -11.21% +18.89%
75th Percentile £39.88 £67.50 £68.75
90th Percentile £70.14 £75.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £51.89
% change year-on-year -49.70% -3.64% +15.31%

BPSS Clearance
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing BPSS Clearance relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

BPSS Clearance job vacancy trend in the UK

BPSS Clearance
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance

BPSS Clearance
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BPSS Clearance over the 6 months to 25 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for BPSS Clearance in the UK

BPSS Clearance
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance

BPSS Clearance
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BPSS Clearance over the 6 months to 25 October 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for BPSS Clearance in the UK

BPSS Clearance
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 25 October 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
England +87 441 £500 -0.25% 460
UK excluding London +68 333 £492 +5.81% 427
Work from Home +113 234 £475 -13.64% 226
North of England +47 163 £488 +21.88% 83
London +24 118 £496 -10.63% 77
North West +48 117 £469 -14.73% 66
Midlands -7 59 £496 -0.80% 28
South East +23 42 £507 +20.00% 121
Yorkshire -4 37 £500 +127.27% 12
West Midlands -15 37 £520 +10.64% 20
South West +10 31 £560 -5.08% 99
Scotland +20 25 £415 -24.55% 18
East Midlands +9 22 £465 -24.21% 6
East of England -27 17 £604 +174.55% 105
North East 0 11 £529 +47.90% 5
Northern Ireland -4 6 £350 - 1
Wales -6 3 - - 14

BPSS Clearance
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 33 (5.29%) Confluence
2 10 (1.60%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.80%) Apache
5 4 (0.64%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.64%) SugarCRM
6 3 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.48%) MTS
7 2 (0.32%) CMS
7 2 (0.32%) HCL Domino
7 2 (0.32%) HCL Notes
7 2 (0.32%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.16%) Appian
8 1 (0.16%) FileNet
8 1 (0.16%) JBoss
8 1 (0.16%) nginx
8 1 (0.16%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.16%) WebLogic
Applications
1 21 (3.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (1.60%) AutoCAD
2 10 (1.60%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.12%) Siemens NX
4 5 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.80%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.80%) Navisworks
4 5 (0.80%) ProjectWise
4 5 (0.80%) Revit
5 4 (0.64%) Trello
6 3 (0.48%) Adobe Illustrator
6 3 (0.48%) Adobe XD
6 3 (0.48%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.48%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.48%) Photoshop
6 3 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.32%) Sketch
8 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 40 (6.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (2.40%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (1.76%) SAP HCM
4 10 (1.60%) Oracle EBS R12
5 9 (1.44%) Oracle Financials
5 9 (1.44%) SAP EHS
6 8 (1.28%) Teamcenter
7 7 (1.12%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.96%) Oracle Cash Management
9 5 (0.80%) Oracle ASCP
10 4 (0.64%) Oracle ERP
10 4 (0.64%) Oracle SCM
11 3 (0.48%) Maximo
11 3 (0.48%) Oracle Assets
11 3 (0.48%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 3 (0.48%) Primavera
11 3 (0.48%) SAP BRIM
11 3 (0.48%) SAP Hybris
11 3 (0.48%) SAP PSCD
11 3 (0.48%) SAP VC
Cloud Services
1 89 (14.26%) AWS
2 78 (12.50%) Azure
3 26 (4.17%) Serverless
4 21 (3.37%) GitHub
4 21 (3.37%) Power Platform
5 20 (3.21%) Amazon EC2
6 19 (3.04%) AWS Lambda
7 18 (2.88%) GCP
8 17 (2.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 17 (2.72%) Amazon S3
9 16 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
10 13 (2.08%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (2.08%) SuccessFactors
11 12 (1.92%) Amazon ECS
11 12 (1.92%) Microsoft 365
12 11 (1.76%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (1.60%) Amazon EKS
13 10 (1.60%) Power Automate
13 10 (1.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 9 (1.44%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 18 (2.88%) Firewall
2 11 (1.76%) Network Security
3 8 (1.28%) Intrusion Detection
3 8 (1.28%) LAN
4 7 (1.12%) SAN
4 7 (1.12%) SSH
4 7 (1.12%) Structured Cabling
5 6 (0.96%) DNS
6 5 (0.80%) 5G
6 5 (0.80%) VPN
6 5 (0.80%) WAN
7 4 (0.64%) LTE
7 4 (0.64%) MPLS
7 4 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.48%) BGP
8 3 (0.48%) OpenLDAP
8 3 (0.48%) OSPF
8 3 (0.48%) Unified Communications
8 3 (0.48%) VLAN
8 3 (0.48%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (2.72%) Power BI
2 14 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (2.08%) MongoDB
4 10 (1.60%) Amazon RDS
5 9 (1.44%) BigQuery
5 9 (1.44%) GIS
5 9 (1.44%) NoSQL
6 8 (1.28%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (1.28%) Oracle Database
7 7 (1.12%) MySQL
7 7 (1.12%) Relational Database
7 7 (1.12%) SQL Server
8 6 (0.96%) Geospatial Data
8 6 (0.96%) Metadata
8 6 (0.96%) Spatial Data
8 6 (0.96%) Tableau
9 5 (0.80%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.80%) Looker
9 5 (0.80%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.64%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 52 (8.33%) Git
2 51 (8.17%) JIRA
3 28 (4.49%) Jenkins
4 26 (4.17%) GitLab
5 11 (1.76%) JUnit
6 10 (1.60%) Cucumber
7 7 (1.12%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.96%) Cypress.io
8 6 (0.96%) Mockito
9 4 (0.64%) Gradle
9 4 (0.64%) Grunt
9 4 (0.64%) gulp
9 4 (0.64%) Maven
9 4 (0.64%) Selenium
10 3 (0.48%) Android Studio
10 3 (0.48%) webpack
11 2 (0.32%) Axure RP
11 2 (0.32%) Babel
11 2 (0.32%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.32%) JMeter
General
1 190 (30.45%) Social Skills
2 104 (16.67%) Finance
3 98 (15.71%) Public Sector
4 62 (9.94%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (4.01%) Banking
6 18 (2.88%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (2.56%) Aerospace
8 15 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (1.92%) Aviation
9 12 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
9 12 (1.92%) Manufacturing
10 11 (1.76%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.12%) Billing
11 7 (1.12%) Marketing
12 5 (0.80%) Games
13 4 (0.64%) Local Government
14 3 (0.48%) Investment Banking
14 3 (0.48%) Military
14 3 (0.48%) Police
14 3 (0.48%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 93 (14.90%) Consultant
2 92 (14.74%) Developer
3 59 (9.46%) Senior
4 46 (7.37%) Architect
4 46 (7.37%) SAP Consultant
5 44 (7.05%) Lead
6 43 (6.89%) Analyst
7 28 (4.49%) Java Developer
8 24 (3.85%) Designer
9 19 (3.04%) Project Manager
9 19 (3.04%) Solutions Architect
10 17 (2.72%) Administrator
10 17 (2.72%) Business Analyst
11 15 (2.40%) Delivery Manager
11 15 (2.40%) DevOps Engineer
11 15 (2.40%) Oracle Consultant
12 13 (2.08%) Management Consultant
13 11 (1.76%) Programmer
13 11 (1.76%) SAP HCM Consultant
13 11 (1.76%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.81%) HTML
2 28 (4.49%) REST
3 27 (4.33%) Node.js
4 26 (4.17%) React
5 24 (3.85%) CSS
6 21 (3.37%) RESTful
7 17 (2.72%) JSON
8 15 (2.40%) Spring
9 14 (2.24%) Kafka
10 13 (2.08%) .NET
11 12 (1.92%) SAP Fiori
12 11 (1.76%) AngularJS
12 11 (1.76%) Jest
12 11 (1.76%) SOAP
13 10 (1.60%) Spring Boot
14 8 (1.28%) ActiveMQ
14 8 (1.28%) Elastic Stack
14 8 (1.28%) LDAP
15 7 (1.12%) Web Services
15 7 (1.12%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 49 (7.85%) Onboarding
2 28 (4.49%) Product Ownership
3 19 (3.04%) Management Information System
4 14 (2.24%) Security Posture
5 11 (1.76%) Driving Licence
6 10 (1.60%) Cloud Native
6 10 (1.60%) Virtual Team
7 9 (1.44%) Mobile App
7 9 (1.44%) SCADA
8 8 (1.28%) Data Centre
8 8 (1.28%) Fibre Optics
8 8 (1.28%) NHS
9 7 (1.12%) Low-Code
9 7 (1.12%) Operational Technology
10 5 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
11 4 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.64%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (0.64%) Public Cloud
11 4 (0.64%) Renewable Energy
11 4 (0.64%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 43 (6.89%) Linux
2 25 (4.01%) Windows
3 21 (3.37%) Unix
4 10 (1.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.96%) Android
5 6 (0.96%) Mac OS X
6 5 (0.80%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.80%) Windows Server
7 3 (0.48%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.16%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.16%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.16%) VMS
9 1 (0.16%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.16%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (26.76%) Agile
2 99 (15.87%) Stakeholder Management
3 86 (13.78%) Problem-Solving
4 78 (12.50%) CI/CD
5 68 (10.90%) DevOps
6 48 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 46 (7.37%) Migration
8 45 (7.21%) Roadmaps
9 43 (6.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 41 (6.57%) Scrum
11 39 (6.25%) Change Management
12 37 (5.93%) Test Automation
12 37 (5.93%) User Acceptance Testing
13 35 (5.61%) Microservices
13 35 (5.61%) Validation
14 33 (5.29%) Analytics
14 33 (5.29%) Software Engineering
14 33 (5.29%) User Experience
15 31 (4.97%) Risk Management
16 28 (4.49%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 63 (10.10%) Python
2 61 (9.78%) Java
3 48 (7.69%) SQL
4 30 (4.81%) JavaScript
5 21 (3.37%) TypeScript
6 15 (2.40%) Bash
7 14 (2.24%) ABAP
8 13 (2.08%) PowerShell
9 9 (1.44%) PHP
10 8 (1.28%) C++
11 7 (1.12%) C#
11 7 (1.12%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.96%) Go
12 6 (0.96%) R
12 6 (0.96%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.64%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.64%) Scala
14 3 (0.48%) Kotlin
15 2 (0.32%) Groovy
15 2 (0.32%) Rust
Qualifications
1 320 (51.28%) Security Cleared
2 203 (32.53%) SC Cleared
3 49 (7.85%) Degree
4 18 (2.88%) DBS Check
5 17 (2.72%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (2.08%) Master's Degree
7 12 (1.92%) BC Cleared
8 10 (1.60%) DV Cleared
8 10 (1.60%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 8 (1.28%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.12%) CCNP
10 7 (1.12%) CISM
11 6 (0.96%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 5 (0.80%) RIBA
13 4 (0.64%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.64%) Azure Certification
13 4 (0.64%) Chartered Engineer
13 4 (0.64%) Oracle Certification
14 3 (0.48%) PMP
14 3 (0.48%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (6.57%) QA
2 35 (5.61%) Accessibility
3 21 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 13 (2.08%) Data Quality
5 12 (1.92%) GRC
6 10 (1.60%) Def Stans
6 10 (1.60%) NIST
7 9 (1.44%) PMO
8 6 (0.96%) GDPR
8 6 (0.96%) WCAG
9 4 (0.64%) NCSC
9 4 (0.64%) SLA
10 3 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.48%) PSD2
11 2 (0.32%) ISO 20022
11 2 (0.32%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.32%) SEPA
12 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.16%) P3O
System Software
1 36 (5.77%) Docker
2 18 (2.88%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.32%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.16%) HDFS
6 1 (0.16%) KVM
6 1 (0.16%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 28 (4.49%) Kubernetes
2 26 (4.17%) Terraform
3 11 (1.76%) Grafana
4 8 (1.28%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.96%) Ansible
5 6 (0.96%) EMC NetWorker
5 6 (0.96%) EMC VPLEX
5 6 (0.96%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (0.64%) SCCM
6 4 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.48%) PingFederate
7 3 (0.48%) Puppet
8 2 (0.32%) Ambari
8 2 (0.32%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.32%) Kibana
8 2 (0.32%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.32%) Packer
8 2 (0.32%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.16%) Argo
9 1 (0.16%) Istio
Vendors
1 99 (15.87%) SAP
2 73 (11.70%) Microsoft
3 53 (8.49%) Oracle
4 19 (3.04%) ServiceNow
5 15 (2.40%) Cisco
5 15 (2.40%) Siemens
6 12 (1.92%) VMware
7 11 (1.76%) Google
7 11 (1.76%) Twitter
8 10 (1.60%) Adobe
9 9 (1.44%) Red Hat
10 8 (1.28%) Salesforce
11 7 (1.12%) Dell
12 6 (0.96%) Ariba
12 6 (0.96%) Brocade
12 6 (0.96%) EMC
12 6 (0.96%) Isilon
13 5 (0.80%) Atlassian
13 5 (0.80%) IBM
14 4 (0.64%) Fortinet