I never had to enter a pin with my HSBC cards, neither under nor over £30 when using Apple Pay. However I am not sure if you have to activate the card first, which could require using the pin at a cashpoint.
I tried it today at my local M&S Food Hall and didn’t need to enter my PIN (under £30). I activated the card beforehand via the online banking. Let’s hope the PIN doesn’t take too long to arrive...
Once I go over that £30 limit I always need to enter the PIN on the terminal with some shops (ie. Tesco), correct? Or is that something that’s decided by the banks? Sorry, but haven’t had my cards set up for Apple Pay before.
On a side note: When using Apple Pay in Germany I never need to enter a PIN when over 25€ (standard contactless card limit). Touch ID as authentication seems to be sufficient for their setup (even if it isn’t officially supported there yet).