Yes, you can take annual leave during your notice period in the UK — your notice period is ordinary employment, and your leave rights run through it unchanged. You still have to request it, and your employer can still refuse the dates.
The twist is that the traffic runs both ways. Your employer can also require you to take your accrued leave during notice, and many do, precisely to avoid a large payment in lieu at the end. This guide covers both directions, the pay you are owed while on leave in notice, and how garden leave changes the picture.
Key Takeaways
- GOV.UK confirms that during a notice period “the worker may be able to take whatever is left of their statutory annual leave”.
- Your employer can direct you to take leave during notice under regulation 15(2)(a) WTR 1998, giving notice of at least twice the length of the leave.
- Under section 88(1)(d) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, holiday taken during a statutory notice period is paid at your normal rate.
- Any accrued statutory leave still untaken on your last day must be paid in lieu.
Your Leave Rights Do Not Pause During Notice
Nothing in the Working Time Regulations treats a notice period differently. You continue to accrue leave for every day you remain employed, you keep the right to elect your dates under regulation 15(1), and your employer keeps the right to counter-notice under regulation 15(2)(b).
That means the ordinary booking mechanics apply. If your contract sets a booking process, follow it. If it does not, the statutory default is that you must give notice of at least twice the length of the leave you want — 10 working days off requires at least 20 days’ notice, and gov.uk adds “plus 1 day” because the notice must arrive before that relevant date.
The practical constraint is arithmetic, not law. A one-month notice period simply does not contain enough days to give 21 days’ notice for a two-week break. In short notice periods, the statutory notice rule is usually waived by agreement — which is fine, because both sides can vary it under regulation 15(5).
Can Your Employer Make You Take Annual Leave in Your Notice Period?
Yes, and this is common practice. Regulation 15(2)(a) lets an employer require a worker to take leave on particular days, provided the notice given is at least twice as many days as the number of days of leave.
| Leave the employer wants you to take | Minimum notice they must give |
|---|---|
| 2 days | 4 days |
| 5 days | 10 days |
| 10 days | 20 days |
| 15 days | 30 days |
So an employer serving a one-month notice period can lawfully direct an employee to burn 10 days of accrued leave, but only if the instruction is given at the very start of that month. Leaving it to week three makes the direction invalid.
Again, a contractual clause beats the default. Many UK contracts include a line entitling the employer to require that accrued holiday be taken during any notice period, which removes the doubling rule entirely.
Why employers do this
It is a cash-flow decision. Leave taken during notice is paid at the ordinary rate as part of a period you are already paying for. Leave paid in lieu at the end is an additional lump sum. Directing leave during notice converts one into the other, and it also stops a leaver walking out with three weeks banked.
Are You Paid Normally for Leave Taken During Notice?
Yes. Two separate rules push in the same direction.
First, regulation 16 of the Working Time Regulations requires a week’s pay for each week of statutory leave. For the four weeks derived from regulation 13, “a week’s pay” now expressly includes commission and regularly paid overtime — see our breakdown of holiday pay on overtime.
Second, section 88(1)(d) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 says that where an employee with normal working hours is “absent from work in accordance with the terms of his employment relating to holidays” during the statutory notice period, the employer must pay at least a week’s pay for each week of notice. This is the provision that stops an employer paying a reduced rate for notice weeks spent on holiday.
Note the limit: the statutory notice protection in sections 87 to 91 falls away where your contractual notice is at least a week longer than the statutory minimum. In that case your contract governs the pay, and virtually every contract already provides for full pay during holiday.
Garden Leave Is Not Annual Leave
This confusion is expensive, so be precise about it.
| Annual leave | Garden leave | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Statutory or contractual holiday | Employer requires you to stay away from work during notice |
| Reduces your leave balance? | Yes | No, unless the employer separately directs leave under reg 15(2)(a) |
| Still employed? | Yes | Yes — contract, confidentiality and restrictive covenants all continue |
| Paid? | Yes | Yes, full contractual pay |
Being sent home on garden leave does not automatically consume your holiday. If your employer wants the two to overlap, it must actually serve a leave direction with the required notice, or rely on a contract clause allowing it. Otherwise you accrue leave throughout garden leave and are paid in lieu of it at the end.
A Worked Scenario
Priya resigns on 1 September with one month’s contractual notice, ending 30 September. Her leave year runs January to December, her entitlement is 28 days, and she has taken 12 days.
- Proportion of leave year worked at 30 September: 273 ÷ 365 = 0.7479
- Accrued: 28 × 0.7479 = 20.94 days
- Less 12 taken = 8.94 days outstanding
Her employer wants that balance cleared before she goes. To direct 8 days of leave under regulation 15(2)(a), it must give 16 days’ notice — so the instruction has to be issued by 14 September at the latest to cover leave starting in the final fortnight. If it misses that window and has no contract clause, Priya takes the cash instead. Either way she is not worse off; the difference is when the money lands and whether her last two weeks are worked.
What This Means for You
If you are leaving: ask for your accrued balance in writing on the day you resign, then decide deliberately whether you want the time or the money. Contractual leave above 5.6 weeks is often forfeited on exit, so if your contract gives 30 days, the two non-statutory days are usually only worth something if you take them. Our guide to unused annual leave when you quit covers the payment-in-lieu calculation.
If you are the employer: decide your position before the resignation, not after. A standing contract clause allowing you to require accrued leave to be taken during notice is one sentence, and it removes the whole doubling-notice problem. Then apply it consistently — directing leave for some leavers and not others invites a discrimination argument.
Above all, know the balance on day one of the notice period. Most disputes here are not about the law; they are about two people producing different numbers from the same records. A shared, always-current balance closes that argument before it starts, which is also true of the wider UK leave policy questions that surface when someone leaves.
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This article is general information about UK employment law, not legal advice. Check your own contract, and take advice on your specific circumstances.