How much holiday am I entitled to in the UK?

The statutory minimum

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, almost all UK workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave each year. For a full-time employee working five days a week, that's 28 days including bank holidays.

The 5.6-week figure is split into two pots:

• 4 weeks of EU-derived leave (the original Working Time Directive minimum)
• 1.6 weeks of additional UK leave (added in 2009)

This split matters because the two pots have different carry-over rules — see below.

How bank holidays fit in

There's a common misconception that bank holidays are extra. They aren't, by default. The 28-day statutory minimum is inclusive of bank holidays. England and Wales have eight public holidays a year, so a typical employer might give:

• 20 days holiday + 8 bank holidays = 28 days total (statutory minimum), or
• 25 days holiday + 8 bank holidays = 33 days (above statutory)

Either is legal. Only the second is genuinely "more generous."

Part-time and irregular hours

Part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks pro-rata. The simplest formula:

days worked per week × 5.6 = annual entitlement (capped at 28)

So a 3-day-a-week part-timer gets 16.8 days. A 4-day-a-week part-timer gets 22.4 days.

For workers with irregular hours or zero-hours contracts, holiday accrues at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period. (As of April 2024, this method was reinstated for irregular and part-year workers following the Harpur Trust v Brazel fallout.)

Accrual from day one

Statutory holiday begins to accrue on the first day of employment, at a rate of one twelfth of the annual entitlement per month. There is no minimum service requirement.

In a worker's first year, employers can require leave to be taken in the month it accrues — but in subsequent years, the worker is entitled to take their full annual allocation whenever they choose (subject to notice and approval).

Carry-over rules

This is where the 4 + 1.6 split becomes important.

• The 4 weeks of EU-derived leave can only be carried into the next leave year if the worker was unable to take it because of long-term sickness, maternity, or other family leave. It must then be used within 18 months.
• The 1.6 weeks of additional UK leave can be carried over by mutual agreement (it has to be in the contract or expressly agreed).
• Anything above the statutory 5.6 weeks is purely contractual — the carry-over rules are whatever the employer sets.

A common policy is: "you can carry forward up to 5 days into the next year, by agreement with your manager."

Holiday during sickness, maternity, and other leave

Holiday continues to accrue during all forms of statutory leave — sickness, maternity, paternity, adoption, parental, and shared parental leave. A worker on long-term sick is still building up holiday entitlement.

If sickness prevents them from taking holiday, they can carry the unused statutory portion into the next leave year (as above).

What happens when an employee leaves

On termination, the employee must be paid for any accrued but unused statutory holiday, calculated up to their last day. The standard formula:

(annual entitlement ÷ 365) × days worked in the leave year − days already taken

If the employee has taken more holiday than they've accrued, the employer can deduct the overpayment from their final pay — but only if the employment contract contains a clear clause permitting it. Without that clause, the overpayment can't be recovered.

When employers can refuse a request

An employer can refuse a specific holiday request, but they can't refuse to let the worker take their entitlement at all. Refusal must be reasonable and given in writing within a notice period equal to the length of leave requested.

Employers can also require workers to take leave at specific times — for example, during a Christmas shutdown — by giving twice the notice as the length of leave (so two weeks' notice for a one-week shutdown).

Common edge cases

• New starters mid-year — entitlement is pro-rated based on months remaining in the leave year.
• Leavers mid-year — entitlement is pro-rated up to the leaver date; pay for any unused.
• Term-time only workers — historically calculated using the 12.07% method, then complicated by Harpur Trust v Brazel, then re-simplified by 2024 regulations. Most are back on the 12.07% basis as of April 2024.
• Bank holidays falling on a non-working day — for part-timers, employers should pro-rate bank holiday entitlement to avoid disadvantaging those who don't normally work the day a bank holiday falls on.