England and Wales usually get 8 annual bank holidays while Scotland and Northern Ireland typically get 9 or 10. By contrast, the average number of public holidays for EU nations is 12.8 days each year, and the TUC is calling for a minimum of four additional annual bank holidays to align the UK with other countries. 

 
For the second year in a row, England & Wales will enjoy 9 bank holidays instead of the usual 8. This year’s extra bank holiday is on 8 May and marks the coronation of King Charles III, coming a week after the usual Early May Bank Holiday.

If a bank holiday falls on a weekend, as happened last Christmas and New Year, a ‘substitute’ weekday becomes a bank holiday, normally the following Monday.

Almost all UK workers are entitled to at least 28 days (5.6 weeks) paid holiday a year, which is the statutory minimum entitlement. 

 

An employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of the 28 days of statutory annual leave - so if your employment contract gives a total of 28 days leave, this could break down to 20 days to be taken anytime as normal holiday plus the usual 8 days that are designated bank holidays in England and Wales. 

It’s up to an individual business whether to offer more leave than the legal minimum. If so, you don’t have to apply all the rules that apply to statutory leave to the extra leave. For example, a worker might need to be employed for a certain amount of time before they become entitled to it.  

Bank or public holidays don’t have to be given as paid leave. This is the same whether the employee works full or part time.

When taking on new starters or if the nature of the work changes – for example from full to part time – you should be clear about your company bank holiday policy. 

Part time employees are still entitled to the statutory 28 days paid holiday, but entitlement will need to be calculated in proportion to the hours worked.

 

Those working flexible or irregular hours with ongoing employment contracts, such as shift workers, term-time workers or zero-hours contracts, must still get 28 days paid holiday as a minimum. As the employment contract is in place for the whole year, the entitlement should not be affected by how many weeks are actually worked in that year. 

 

Workers whose employment contract lasts for less than a year and/or ends part way through a holiday year, are entitled to a proportion of a full year’s holiday entitlement. The entitlement is based on the length of time the employment contract lasted rather than the number of weeks worked. 

The minimum entitlement of 28 days means that any entitlement calculations need to include the bank holidays. 

If you allow staff additional time off on bank holidays, this needs to be taken into account when calculating holiday entitlement. For new starters who are joining after the start of the holiday year, it’s only the upcoming bank holidays that need to be accounted for in the entitlement calculation. 

 

Any part year calculations, for instance for maternity leave, also need to be based on the minimum entitlement of 28 days holiday. If you don’t include bank holidays and the calculation is just based on 20 days, then you won’t be meeting the statutory minimum holiday entitlement. 

 

Holiday Management Software is becoming increasingly popular as a more efficient way to deal with the complexities of annual leave. Processes are centralised and streamlined, saving time and giving full visibility to all staff. 

 

WorkSmarter’s Holiday Planner ensures leave can be organised around your unique business needs. Built to be flexible, our software adjusts to the way different businesses operate their holiday and staff leave policies. Whether you track holiday by days or hours, roll-over unused time, or grant TOIL, the system adapts to suit you and automatically provides accurate staff holiday calculations.

➡️ As an employer, you have the right to make changes to when holiday is taken if you need to. For example, you may decide to shut over Christmas and have your staff take their paid holiday during this time, even if this hasn’t been normal practice in the past. However, if you decide to do this then you should tell your staff at least twice as many days before as the amount of days you need them to take. 

➡️ If a bank holiday falls on a day that staff usually work, and the workplace is closed or business stops on that day, the employer can make workers take it as part of their holiday entitlement. This must be made clear in the employment contract and sufficient notice will need to be given. 

➡️ Employees can ask for a day’s holiday in lieu if the bank holiday falls on a day they usually work and they don’t want to take that day off, however an employer doesn’t have to agree with this. It’s also important to note that an employer can’t make someone use a bank holiday as part of their holiday entitlement if they don’t usually work on that day. 

➡️ When workers are on sick leave, maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave, they still build up paid days off for bank holidays.

➡️ Are your employees entitled to this year’s extra King’s Coronation bank holiday, which falls on 8 May? The fact that there’s an extra bank holiday does not give your employees a legal right to an extra paid day off. It all depends on the way your contracts are worded around holiday entitlement. If you’re in any doubt, we recommend you take advice from a reputable employment specialist.