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

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 149 276 248
Rank change year-on-year +127 -28 -48
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 678 319 452
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.90% 0.89% 0.99%
As % of the Qualifications category 5.70% 3.02% 3.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 496 169 302
10th Percentile £307 £220 £360
25th Percentile £400 £387 £446
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.25% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £624
90th Percentile £700 £688 £702
UK excluding London median daily rate £467 £470 £550
% change year-on-year -0.64% -14.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 16 32
10th Percentile £16.81 £20.06 £24.25
25th Percentile £22.63 £20.12 £33.14
Median hourly rate £33.50 £37.93 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.67% -31.05% -8.33%
75th Percentile £48.13 £64.06 £76.99
90th Percentile £70.08 £65.00 £84.36
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £38.85 £55.00
% change year-on-year -13.77% -29.36% -8.33%

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 11,891 10,576 13,431
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.28% 29.39% 29.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,695 6,397 8,475
10th Percentile £305 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £422 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £520 £538
% change year-on-year -3.85% -3.26% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,012 508 757
10th Percentile £17.32 £19.12 £17.72
25th Percentile £19.28 £24.18 £27.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £41.71 £53.50
Median % change year-on-year -39.70% -22.05% +18.89%
75th Percentile £45.88 £66.00 £67.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £52.05
% change year-on-year -44.11% -13.55% +15.67%

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 1 December 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 1 December 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 1 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
England +95 479 £492 -1.60% 360
UK excluding London +74 360 £467 -0.64% 358
Work from Home +99 242 £485 -11.82% 259
North of England +58 187 £469 +10.48% 33
North West +64 139 £450 -10.00% 26
London +56 134 £501 -12.96% 45
Midlands -17 54 £441 -11.75% 19
West Midlands -12 41 £500 +6.38% 17
South West +17 38 £560 -5.08% 109
South East +5 38 £456 +8.63% 141
Yorkshire -21 38 £500 +127.27% 6
Scotland +27 28 £420 -23.64% 9
East of England -24 18 £515 +134.09% 137
East Midlands -4 13 £350 -42.95% 2
North East +1 12 £488 +17.82% 3
Northern Ireland - 7 £375 -
Wales -5 5 £458 +108.00% 1

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 42 (6.19%) Confluence
2 11 (1.62%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.47%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.88%) Apache
4 6 (0.88%) nginx
5 4 (0.59%) CMS
5 4 (0.59%) SugarCRM
6 3 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.44%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.44%) MTS
6 3 (0.44%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.29%) HCL Domino
7 2 (0.29%) HCL Notes
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.15%) Documentum
8 1 (0.15%) FileNet
8 1 (0.15%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.15%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.15%) Tomcat
Applications
1 20 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.03%) AutoCAD
4 5 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.74%) ProjectWise
5 4 (0.59%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.59%) Trello
6 3 (0.44%) Adobe XD
6 3 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.29%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.29%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.29%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.29%) Revit
7 2 (0.29%) Sketch
7 2 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.15%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 43 (6.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (2.36%) Oracle EBS
3 13 (1.92%) SAP EHS
4 10 (1.47%) Oracle EBS R12
5 9 (1.33%) Oracle Financials
6 7 (1.03%) Oracle Payables
6 7 (1.03%) SAP HCM
7 6 (0.88%) Oracle Cash Management
7 6 (0.88%) SAP VC
8 5 (0.74%) Oracle ASCP
8 5 (0.74%) SAP QM
9 4 (0.59%) Maximo
9 4 (0.59%) Oracle ERP
9 4 (0.59%) Oracle SCM
10 3 (0.44%) Oracle Assets
10 3 (0.44%) SAP BRIM
10 3 (0.44%) SAP Hybris
10 3 (0.44%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.44%) SAP PM
10 3 (0.44%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 102 (15.04%) AWS
2 83 (12.24%) Azure
3 31 (4.57%) Serverless
4 26 (3.83%) GitHub
5 23 (3.39%) Power Platform
6 22 (3.24%) AWS Lambda
7 17 (2.51%) AWS CloudFormation
7 17 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
7 17 (2.51%) GitHub Actions
8 16 (2.36%) Amazon EC2
8 16 (2.36%) GCP
8 16 (2.36%) Microsoft 365
8 16 (2.36%) SuccessFactors
9 15 (2.21%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 13 (1.92%) Amazon S3
11 11 (1.62%) Amazon ECS
12 10 (1.47%) Amazon EKS
12 10 (1.47%) Figma
12 10 (1.47%) Power Automate
12 10 (1.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.21%) Firewall
2 12 (1.77%) SSH
3 10 (1.47%) DNS
4 9 (1.33%) LAN
5 8 (1.18%) SAN
5 8 (1.18%) WAN
6 7 (1.03%) MPLS
6 7 (1.03%) Network Security
6 7 (1.03%) VPN
7 5 (0.74%) Intrusion Detection
8 4 (0.59%) SDH
8 4 (0.59%) SD-WAN
8 4 (0.59%) Structured Cabling
8 4 (0.59%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (0.44%) 5G
9 3 (0.44%) BGP
9 3 (0.44%) DHCP
9 3 (0.44%) OSPF
9 3 (0.44%) VLAN
9 3 (0.44%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (2.36%) Power BI
2 12 (1.77%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (1.62%) MongoDB
4 10 (1.47%) Metadata
4 10 (1.47%) NoSQL
5 9 (1.33%) SQL Server
6 8 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (1.18%) Relational Database
7 7 (1.03%) Data Lake
7 7 (1.03%) Oracle Database
7 7 (1.03%) Redis
8 6 (0.88%) BigQuery
8 6 (0.88%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (0.88%) MySQL
9 5 (0.74%) DocumentDB
9 5 (0.74%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.59%) Big Data
10 4 (0.59%) Data Hub
10 4 (0.59%) SAP HANA
10 4 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 72 (10.62%) Git
2 64 (9.44%) JIRA
3 31 (4.57%) GitLab
4 29 (4.28%) Jenkins
5 11 (1.62%) SonarQube
6 9 (1.33%) Cucumber
6 9 (1.33%) Cypress.io
7 8 (1.18%) Mockito
8 7 (1.03%) JUnit
9 6 (0.88%) Selenium
10 5 (0.74%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.59%) Gradle
11 4 (0.59%) Grunt
11 4 (0.59%) gulp
11 4 (0.59%) JMeter
12 3 (0.44%) Android Studio
12 3 (0.44%) Toad
12 3 (0.44%) webpack
13 2 (0.29%) Babel
13 2 (0.29%) Gatling
General
1 204 (30.09%) Social Skills
2 127 (18.73%) Public Sector
3 109 (16.08%) Finance
4 59 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
5 28 (4.13%) Banking
6 25 (3.69%) Aerospace
7 17 (2.51%) Manufacturing
8 16 (2.36%) Organisational Skills
9 15 (2.21%) Aviation
10 14 (2.06%) Telecoms
11 13 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
11 13 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
12 8 (1.18%) Local Government
13 7 (1.03%) Billing
13 7 (1.03%) Legal
13 7 (1.03%) Marketing
14 6 (0.88%) Law
15 5 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
16 4 (0.59%) Financial Institution
17 3 (0.44%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 107 (15.78%) Developer
2 88 (12.98%) Consultant
3 66 (9.73%) Senior
4 57 (8.41%) Analyst
5 48 (7.08%) Architect
6 46 (6.78%) Lead
7 42 (6.19%) SAP Consultant
8 33 (4.87%) Java Developer
9 23 (3.39%) Administrator
10 22 (3.24%) Business Analyst
10 22 (3.24%) Designer
11 19 (2.80%) DevOps Engineer
11 19 (2.80%) Solutions Architect
12 18 (2.65%) Project Manager
13 17 (2.51%) Delivery Manager
14 16 (2.36%) Senior Developer
15 15 (2.21%) Oracle Consultant
16 13 (1.92%) Management Consultant
16 13 (1.92%) Senior Manager
17 12 (1.77%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (5.16%) Node.js
2 31 (4.57%) React
3 30 (4.42%) REST
4 28 (4.13%) HTML
5 23 (3.39%) Kafka
6 22 (3.24%) CSS
6 22 (3.24%) RESTful
7 20 (2.95%) JSON
8 14 (2.06%) Spring
9 13 (1.92%) SAP Fiori
10 12 (1.77%) .NET
10 12 (1.77%) Spring Boot
10 12 (1.77%) XML
11 10 (1.47%) AngularJS
12 9 (1.33%) ActiveMQ
12 9 (1.33%) Jest
12 9 (1.33%) SOAP
13 8 (1.18%) Elastic Stack
13 8 (1.18%) HTML5
13 8 (1.18%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 47 (6.93%) Onboarding
2 34 (5.01%) Product Ownership
3 18 (2.65%) Management Information System
4 14 (2.06%) Security Posture
5 13 (1.92%) Cloud Native
6 12 (1.77%) Driving Licence
7 10 (1.47%) Mobile App
8 9 (1.33%) NHS
8 9 (1.33%) SCADA
9 8 (1.18%) Data Centre
9 8 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (1.03%) Low-Code
11 6 (0.88%) AI Agents
11 6 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (0.88%) Operational Technology
11 6 (0.88%) Public Cloud
12 5 (0.74%) Cyber Threat
12 5 (0.74%) Distributed Systems
12 5 (0.74%) Fibre Optics
12 5 (0.74%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 64 (9.44%) Linux
2 28 (4.13%) Windows
3 24 (3.54%) Unix
4 11 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.03%) Android
6 6 (0.88%) Mac OS X
7 5 (0.74%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.59%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.29%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.15%) CentOS
10 1 (0.15%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.15%) VME
10 1 (0.15%) VMS
10 1 (0.15%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.15%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 195 (28.76%) Agile
2 103 (15.19%) Problem-Solving
3 98 (14.45%) CI/CD
4 96 (14.16%) Stakeholder Management
5 86 (12.68%) DevOps
6 58 (8.55%) Continuous Improvement
7 51 (7.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 50 (7.37%) Migration
9 48 (7.08%) Scrum
10 45 (6.64%) Microservices
10 45 (6.64%) Roadmaps
10 45 (6.64%) Test Automation
11 41 (6.05%) AI
11 41 (6.05%) Change Management
12 40 (5.90%) User Experience
12 40 (5.90%) Validation
13 37 (5.46%) User Acceptance Testing
14 33 (4.87%) Mentoring
14 33 (4.87%) Project Management
14 33 (4.87%) User Research
Programming Languages
1 79 (11.65%) Python
2 69 (10.18%) Java
3 45 (6.64%) SQL
4 35 (5.16%) JavaScript
5 23 (3.39%) TypeScript
6 18 (2.65%) Bash
7 13 (1.92%) ABAP
7 13 (1.92%) PowerShell
8 12 (1.77%) Ruby
9 10 (1.47%) PHP
9 10 (1.47%) Shell Script
10 9 (1.33%) PL/SQL
11 8 (1.18%) C++
12 7 (1.03%) R
12 7 (1.03%) Scala
13 6 (0.88%) Go
14 5 (0.74%) C#
15 4 (0.59%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.44%) Kotlin
16 3 (0.44%) Rust
Qualifications
1 340 (50.15%) Security Cleared
2 234 (34.51%) SC Cleared
3 48 (7.08%) Degree
4 22 (3.24%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (2.21%) DBS Check
6 14 (2.06%) DV Cleared
7 13 (1.92%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.77%) BC Cleared
9 10 (1.47%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 9 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
11 7 (1.03%) CCNP
12 5 (0.74%) Azure Certification
13 4 (0.59%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.59%) CISM
13 4 (0.59%) ISEB
13 4 (0.59%) ISTQB
13 4 (0.59%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (0.59%) Oracle Certification
14 3 (0.44%) CISSP
14 3 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (6.05%) Accessibility
2 39 (5.75%) QA
3 18 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 12 (1.77%) Data Quality
4 12 (1.77%) GRC
4 12 (1.77%) SLA
5 10 (1.47%) Def Stans
6 9 (1.33%) NIST
7 8 (1.18%) PMO
7 8 (1.18%) WCAG
8 7 (1.03%) GDPR
8 7 (1.03%) NCSC
9 4 (0.59%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.44%) PSD2
11 2 (0.29%) SEPA
12 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.15%) ECSS
12 1 (0.15%) P3O
System Software
1 45 (6.64%) Docker
2 19 (2.80%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.59%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.44%) vSphere
7 1 (0.15%) ACF2
7 1 (0.15%) GPFS
7 1 (0.15%) HDFS
7 1 (0.15%) KVM
7 1 (0.15%) NFS
7 1 (0.15%) Postfix
7 1 (0.15%) RACF
7 1 (0.15%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.15%) Varnish
7 1 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 43 (6.34%) Kubernetes
2 40 (5.90%) Terraform
3 12 (1.77%) Grafana
4 9 (1.33%) Prometheus
5 7 (1.03%) Ansible
5 7 (1.03%) EMC NetWorker
5 7 (1.03%) EMC VPLEX
6 6 (0.88%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.59%) Packer
7 4 (0.59%) Puppet
7 4 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.44%) Consul
8 3 (0.44%) PingFederate
8 3 (0.44%) SCCM
8 3 (0.44%) vRealize
9 2 (0.29%) Ambari
9 2 (0.29%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.29%) Kibana
9 2 (0.29%) Kubeflow
9 2 (0.29%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 103 (15.19%) SAP
2 78 (11.50%) Microsoft
3 55 (8.11%) Oracle
4 24 (3.54%) Cisco
5 20 (2.95%) VMware
6 14 (2.06%) ServiceNow
7 11 (1.62%) Adobe
8 10 (1.47%) Dell
8 10 (1.47%) Google
9 9 (1.33%) Atlassian
9 9 (1.33%) IBM
9 9 (1.33%) Red Hat
10 7 (1.03%) Brocade
10 7 (1.03%) EMC
10 7 (1.03%) Isilon
10 7 (1.03%) Siemens
11 6 (0.88%) Fortinet
11 6 (0.88%) Salesforce
11 6 (0.88%) webMethods
11 6 (0.88%) Workday