UK Annual Leave Entitlement: 2026 Guide

The Statutory Minimum

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, almost all workers in the UK are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave per year. For a full-time employee working 5 days a week, this equates to 28 days per year.

This is the legal minimum. Many employers choose to offer more generous entitlements as part of their benefits package. There is no legal maximum for annual leave, so employers are free to offer as many days as they wish.

The entitlement applies to most workers, including agency workers, those on zero-hours contracts, and casual workers. The only exceptions are members of the armed forces, the police, and certain seafarers, who have their own regulations.

Part-Time Worker Entitlement

Part-time workers are entitled to the same 5.6 weeks of leave, calculated on a pro-rata basis. The simplest way to calculate this is:

Examples

• 3 days per week: 3 × 5.6 = 16.8 days per year
• 4 days per week: 4 × 5.6 = 22.4 days per year
• 2.5 days per week: 2.5 × 5.6 = 14 days per year

For workers with irregular hours or annualised hours contracts, the entitlement is calculated as 12.07% of hours worked. This figure is derived from the statutory 5.6 weeks divided by the remaining 46.4 working weeks in the year (52 weeks minus 5.6 weeks).

Bank Holidays

There is a common misconception that employees are entitled to bank holidays on top of their annual leave. In fact, employers can include bank holidays as part of the 28-day statutory minimum.

England and Wales have 8 bank holidays in 2026. If an employer includes these in the statutory entitlement, employees would have 20 days of leave to take at their discretion, plus the 8 bank holidays, totalling the 28-day minimum.

Scotland has 9 bank holidays, and Northern Ireland has 10. Employers operating across the UK should ensure their policies account for these regional differences.

Many employers choose to offer bank holidays in addition to the statutory minimum, which is more generous but not legally required. Whatever approach you take, it should be clearly stated in employment contracts and leave policies.

Carry-Over Rules

The default position under the Working Time Regulations is that statutory leave must be taken within the leave year and cannot be carried over. However, there are several important exceptions:

• Additional leave (above 28 days): Any contractual leave above the statutory minimum can be subject to carry-over rules set by the employer. Many employers allow a limited number of days (e.g., 5 days) to be carried over.
• Sickness: If an employee is unable to take their leave due to sickness, they can carry over up to 20 days of the EU-derived leave (the first 4 weeks). This must be used within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it accrued.
• Maternity/parental leave: Workers on family-related leave who cannot reasonably take their annual leave can carry it over.
• Employer failure: If an employer fails to enable an employee to take their leave, or fails to inform them that untaken leave will be lost, the employee may be entitled to carry it over. This was clarified by the Kreuziger and Max-Planck cases in European case law, which remain relevant in UK law.

It is good practice to actively encourage employees to take their full leave entitlement and to send reminders before the end of the leave year.

Rolled-Up Holiday Pay

Rolled-up holiday pay is the practice of including holiday pay as an enhancement to a worker's regular pay, rather than paying them when they actually take time off. For example, a worker might receive an additional 12.07% on top of their hourly rate to cover holiday pay.

Following changes introduced under the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, rolled-up holiday pay is now explicitly permitted for irregular-hours and part-year workers. This provides clarity for employers of casual, zero-hours, and seasonal workers.

However, employers should be aware that workers receiving rolled-up holiday pay must still be allowed to take their statutory leave. Paying rolled-up holiday pay does not remove the obligation to provide time off.

Accrual & New Starters

In the first year of employment, leave accrues at the rate of one-twelfth of the annual entitlement per month of service. This means a new starter is not immediately entitled to their full year's allowance.

For example, a full-time employee with 28 days of annual leave who starts on 1 April would accrue approximately 2.33 days per month. By the end of June (3 months), they would have accrued about 7 days.

Many employers simplify this by allowing new starters to take a proportion of their leave from day one, calculated pro-rata based on the number of complete months remaining in the leave year. If an employee leaves before using all their accrued leave, the employer must pay them for any unused entitlement. If they have taken more than they have accrued, the employer can deduct the overpayment from their final pay, provided the employment contract allows this.

How Leavely Helps

Leavely takes the complexity out of managing leave entitlements:

• Automatic entitlement calculation: Leavely calculates entitlements for full-time and part-time workers based on their contracted hours, including pro-rata calculations for mid-year starters.
• Bank holiday management: Configure bank holidays for your region and choose whether they count towards the statutory entitlement or are additional.
• Carry-over tracking: Set carry-over limits and track unused leave automatically, with reminders sent before the end of the leave year.
• Accrual visibility: Employees and managers can see current balances, pending requests, and remaining entitlement in real time.
• Leave year configuration: Set your leave year to match your business needs (calendar year, April-March, or any custom period).