Statutory Annual Leave Entitlement UK: 28 Days, Bank Holidays & Pro-Rata Rules

Every employee and worker in Great Britain and Northern Ireland possesses statutory paid holiday rights from their very first day on the job. Alongside other statutory protections such as statutory redundancy pay and minimum notice periods, UK employment law ensures you earn paid time off whether you are on a permanent contract, part-time hours, or a zero-hours framework.

However, misconceptions around bank holidays, part-time pro-rata deductions, maximum statutory caps, and the 12.07% irregular-hours reform remain widespread. This guide breaks down the statutory mechanics established by the Working Time Regulations 1998, the Employment Rights Act 1996, and recent legal revisions to ensure your workplace calculations are 100% compliant. You can also verify how holiday pay impacts your net earnings using our UK Take-Home Pay Guide.

The Statutory Baseline: Working Time Regulations 1998 & The 5.6-Week Rule

Under Regulation 13 and Regulation 13A of the Working Time Regulations 1998, all UK workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid statutory leave in each leave year.

This 5.6-week entitlement is composed of two distinct statutory parts:

• Regulation 13 (Basic Leave): 4.0 weeks of statutory annual leave (originally derived from the EU Working Time Directive).
• Regulation 13A (Additional Leave): 1.6 weeks of domestic statutory leave added specifically by the UK Government to mirror the UK's 8 public bank holidays.

Together, these combine into the universal 5.6-week entitlement. If you work 5 days a week, the basic equation is simple:

5 days × 5.6 weeks = 28 days of statutory leave

The 28-Day Statutory Cap: What Happens if You Work 6 or 7 Days a Week?

A frequent point of confusion for compressed-hours workers and those on 6-day rosters is whether the 5.6-week multiplier continues indefinitely. UK law places a strict ceiling here: statutory annual leave is capped at a maximum of 28 days per year.

If you work 6 days a week, 6 × 5.6 = 33.6 days mathematically. However, because statutory leave is legally capped at 28 days, your statutory entitlement remains 28 days. Any additional days above 28 days must be provided as voluntary contractual holiday by your employer.

Does the 28 Days Statutory Leave Include Bank Holidays?

The short answer is yes, an employer can legally include bank holidays within your 28 days.

There is no separate automatic right in UK employment law to paid time off on public or bank holidays (there are typically 8 bank holidays in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland, and 10 in Northern Ireland). An employer can legally handle bank holidays in two ways:

1. Included in the 28 Days: You receive 20 bookable days of holiday, plus the 8 standard bank holidays off with pay, totaling 28 days.
2. In Addition to the 28 Days: Your contract gives you 28 bookable days of holiday plus the 8 bank holidays, providing 36 total days of contractual leave.

If your business operates on bank holidays (e.g., healthcare, retail, hospitality, emergency services), your employer can require you to work on bank holidays, provided your total paid leave throughout the year meets or exceeds the 5.6-week legal baseline.

How to Calculate Part-Time Pro-Rata Annual Leave

Under the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, part-time employees must receive the exact same proportionate holiday entitlement as a full-time counterpart. You cannot reduce part-time benefits disproportionately.

Calculating part-time statutory leave in days is straightforward: multiply the number of days you work each week by 5.6.

The Anti-Rounding Down Rule (Crucial Legal Protection)

When calculating fractional entitlements (such as 16.8 days for a 3-day worker or 22.4 days for a 4-day worker), employers are strictly forbidden by UK law from rounding down. An employer cannot turn 16.8 days into 16 days. They must either:

• Permit the employee to take the exact fraction of leave (e.g. 16 full days plus leaving 0.8 of a day early).
• Round up the entitlement to the nearest half or full day (e.g. rounding 16.8 up to 17 full days).

Bank Holidays for Part-Time Workers: The Monday Inequality Problem

Because the vast majority of UK bank holidays fall on a Monday (Easter Monday, Early May, Spring Bank Holiday, Summer Bank Holiday), part-time employees who do not work Mondays could lose out on paid time off if bank holidays are simply taken off automatically.

To remain compliant with ACAS standards, employers should convert total annual leave and bank holiday allocations into an overall pro-rata holiday pot. For instance, if a full-time worker gets 28 days total (including bank holidays), a 3-day part-time worker receives 16.8 days total. Any bank holidays that happen to fall on their scheduled working day are deducted from this overall pot, ensuring fair treatment regardless of which days of the week they work.

If you need to calculate exactly how many working days fall between two calendar dates when booking time off, you can use our Working Days Between Dates Calculator.

Irregular Hours & Zero-Hours Workers: The 12.07% Accrual Formula in 2026

For individuals with irregular hours, variable shift rotas, or zero-hours contracts, tracking leave by fixed days is unworkable. Historically, employers used the well-known 12.07% accrual formula.

The 2024–2026 Legal Reform (Reversing Harpur Trust v Brazel)

In the landmark 2022 Supreme Court ruling Harpur Trust v Brazel, it was ruled that part-year workers (like term-time music teachers) could not have their leave pro-rated using 12.07%, leading to bizarre scenarios where casual workers received disproportionately large holiday entitlements.

In response, the UK Government passed the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, which took effect for holiday years starting on or after 1 January 2024:

1. Statutory 12.07% Reintroduced: For irregular-hours and part-year workers, statutory holiday entitlement is now officially codified at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period.
2. Rolled-Up Holiday Pay Legalised: Employers can now choose to pay "rolled-up holiday pay"—paying an additional 12.07% on top of normal hourly wages each pay packet instead of administering paid time off, provided this is clearly itemised on payslips.

Calculating Annual Leave in Hours (Shift Workers & Compressed Schedules)

If you work variable shifts, 12-hour factory shifts, or compressed 4-day weeks (e.g. 37.5 hours across 4 days), leave is best administered in hours rather than days.

Contracted Weekly Hours × 5.6 Weeks = Total Annual Leave Hours

• 37.5 hours per week: 37.5 × 5.6 = 210.0 hours of holiday per year.
• 40.0 hours per week: 40.0 × 5.6 = 224.0 hours of holiday per year.
• 20.0 hours per week (Part-time): 20.0 × 5.6 = 112.0 hours of holiday per year.

When you book a shift off, you simply deduct the actual length of that shift (e.g., 7.5 hours, 10 hours, or 12 hours) from your annual holiday balance.

Holiday Pay Calculation: Normal Remuneration vs Basic Salary

Under UK and European case law (including Williams v British Airways and Lock v British Gas), holiday pay must reflect an employee's "normal remuneration" so that taking time off does not leave them financially worse off.

For the first 4 weeks of statutory leave (Regulation 13), your holiday pay must include:

• Guaranteed, non-guaranteed, and regular voluntary overtime.
• Regular commission payments and performance bonuses.
• Shift allowances, antisocial hours premia, and travel allowances linked to duties.

Under Section 221-224 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, if an employee has variable pay, employers must calculate average weekly earnings over a 52-week reference period (discounting weeks where zero pay was received, looking back up to a maximum of 104 weeks).

Carrying Over Unused Holiday: What the Law Says

The general principle of UK statutory leave is "use it or lose it." However, several vital statutory exceptions apply:

1. Sickness Absence: If illness prevented you from taking your statutory leave, you can carry forward up to 4 weeks of leave for up to 18 months following the end of the leave year.
2. Maternity and Family-Related Leave: All statutory annual leave continues to accrue normally during maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave. Any untaken leave can be carried over into the following holiday year without restriction.
3. Employer Refusal or Failure to Inform: If your employer failed to allow you to take holiday, discouraged you from taking it, or failed to inform you that untaken leave would be lost, you retain the legal right to carry over all untaken statutory leave until your employment ends.

Frequently Asked Questions About UK Annual Leave