Yes — bank holidays can count towards your statutory annual leave in the UK. Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, employers are legally allowed to include bank holidays within the 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, so whether those 8 days come out of your allowance or sit on top of it depends on your contract, not on law.
That is the short answer. The longer one matters more, because the distinction changes your actual take-home holiday by up to 8 days.
Key Takeaways
- Almost all UK workers receive 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, capped at 28 days — GOV.UK.
- Employers may include bank holidays inside the 28 days — a contract giving 20 days plus 8 bank holidays meets the statutory minimum exactly.
- There is no separate statutory right to bank holidays off or to extra pay for working them.
- If your contract is silent, look for what has happened in practice — custom and practice can become an implied term.
How Bank Holidays and Annual Leave Fit Together
The Working Time Regulations 1998 grant almost every UK worker 5.6 weeks of paid leave per year. For someone working five days a week, that is 28 days. For someone working three days, it is 16.8, rounded up to 17.
England and Wales observe 8 bank holidays. Scotland has 9. Northern Ireland has 10.
An employer who gives you 20 days of chosen leave plus the 8 bank holidays has given you exactly 28 days — the statutory minimum for a five-day worker. That is lawful. An employer who gives you 28 days of chosen leave plus bank holidays is being more generous than the law requires. Both arrangements are common. Neither is wrong.
The Three Contract Wordings
Every UK employment contract does one of three things with bank holidays. Match your clause:
| Contract wording | What you get (England & Wales) | Statutory minimum met? |
|---|---|---|
| “28 days inclusive of bank holidays” | 20 chosen + 8 fixed | Yes, exactly |
| “20 days plus bank holidays” | 20 chosen + 8 fixed | Yes, exactly |
| “25 days plus bank holidays” | 25 chosen + 8 fixed = 33 | Yes, 5 above minimum |
The first two wordings look different and deliver the identical outcome. That is worth checking before raising it with HR — “inclusive of bank holidays” is not evidence you are being short-changed.
Do You Have a Right to Take the Bank Holiday Off?
No. There is no statutory right to time off on a bank or public holiday, and no statutory right to premium pay for working one. GOV.UK confirms that your employer does not have to give you paid leave on bank holidays.
What the law protects is the total. If you work a bank holiday, you must still receive your full 5.6 weeks of paid holiday as time off at some other point in the leave year. An employer cannot roster you through every bank holiday and then treat your entitlement as spent.
Premium pay — time and a half, double time, a day in lieu — is contractual, not statutory. If your contract or your employer’s long-standing practice provides it, it is enforceable. If neither does, a bank holiday shift pays your normal rate.
The Scotland and Northern Ireland Difference
The 28-day cap is UK-wide, but the bank holiday calendar is not. Scotland observes 9 bank holidays (adding a January substitute day) and Northern Ireland observes 10 (adding St Patrick’s Day and the Battle of the Boyne).
This matters for multi-site employers. A single “20 days plus bank holidays” clause delivers 28 days in Birmingham, 29 in Edinburgh, and 30 in Belfast. If you transferred between offices, your total holiday would change even though your contract did not.
Worked Example: What “Inclusive” Costs You
Emma works Monday to Friday in Leeds. Her contract states 28 days inclusive of bank holidays.
- England and Wales bank holidays: 8
- Days Emma chooses herself: 28 − 8 = 20
If Emma’s contract said “28 days plus bank holidays,” she would get 28 days of her own choice plus 8 bank holidays = 36 days total. The difference between the two wordings is 8 full days of paid leave.
Emma should also check whether any bank holidays fall on a weekend in her leave year. In 2026, Christmas Day and Boxing Day both fall on a Thursday and Friday respectively, so all 8 bank holidays fall on working days in England. If a bank holiday falls on a weekend and the employer does not grant a substitute day, the effective number of bank holidays in the total is reduced — which can mean more chosen leave available.
Part-Time Workers and the Pro-Rata Rule
Part-time workers are entitled to the same 5.6 weeks on a pro-rata basis. A worker doing 3 days a week gets 3 × 5.6 = 16.8 days, rounded up to 17.
If the contract includes bank holidays on an inclusive basis, the bank holidays still count inside those 17 days. A part-timer who does not work on Tuesdays (which includes some bank holidays) does not lose those days — they still come out of the total, and the remaining days are available for the employee to choose.
The pro-rata calculator on GOV.UK handles the rounding for different working patterns.
What to Do If Your Contract Is Silent
If your written contract does not mention bank holidays at all, look at what has happened in practice:
- Have you always had bank holidays off? If so, that pattern may have become an implied contractual term through custom and practice.
- Has your employer recently changed the policy? A unilateral change to a long-standing benefit without consultation can be a breach of contract.
- Check your staff handbook. Even if the contract is silent, a handbook that guarantees bank holidays off may be incorporated into your terms.
If there is genuine ambiguity, raise it in writing with your employer before a dispute arises. A clear written confirmation now saves an argument later.
Common Misconceptions
Several beliefs circulate about bank holiday rights that are simply wrong:
- “Bank holidays are double pay by law.” They are not. Double or enhanced pay is contractual, not statutory.
- “I can’t be made to work a bank holiday.” You can, unless your contract specifically excludes it.
- “If I’m sick on a bank holiday, I get it back.” If you are genuinely ill on a bank holiday and your contract includes bank holidays within your total, you may be entitled to a substitute day — but this depends on your contract wording and your employer’s policy, not on law.
- “Zero-hours workers don’t get bank holiday pay.” They do, if they have accrued statutory holiday under the irregular-hours rules introduced in 2024.
How Leave Balance Helps
Tracking which bank holidays are included, pro-rated for part-time staff, and substituted when they fall on weekends is tedious on a spreadsheet. Leave Balance automates the calculation per worker, per nation, and flags when a bank holiday falls outside an employee’s working pattern.
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