UK bank holidays 2026

Bank holidays aren't an automatic day off. There's no legal right to have them off or to be paid extra for working them. Whether staff get them depends on their contract.

They can count towards statutory holiday. The legal minimum for someone working five days a week is 28 days a year (5.6 weeks), and employers may include bank holidays in that. "20 days plus bank holidays" meets the minimum in England and Wales; check your figure against the nation your staff work in, since the number of bank holidays differs.

Part-time staff are entitled to the same, pro rata. Someone who doesn't work Mondays misses most bank holidays, so giving part-timers "the bank holidays that fall on their days" usually short-changes them. The fair approach is to pro-rate the whole allowance, bank holidays included, then have staff book the bank holidays that land on their working days. Our holiday entitlement calculator does the sums.

Scotland is different. Scottish bank holidays are set for banks rather than employers, and many Scottish employers observe local holidays instead of some of them. Check what your local council publishes.