How many bank holidays do employees living in England and Wales get?

How many holidays are there in a year? For people living in England and Wales, generally there are eight bank holidays (or public holidays) per calendar year.

In a usual calendar year, there are eight days counted as a bank holiday in England and Wales, which many members of the public receive as days off work. England and Wales share the same bank holidays, which are slightly different to what Scotland and Northern Ireland receive.

We’ve seen some changes in this recently of course. The Queen’s jubilee and the day of her funeral meant that there were ten days of bank holidays in 2022. And the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6 May, celebrated on Monday 8 May as a bank holiday, will mean the public received nine bank holidays in 2023. However in 2024, it is set to resume to the usual eight days.

Bank holidays for England and Wales in 2024

In 2024, there are eight bank holidays. These are:

How do bank holidays impact holiday entitlement?

The statutory minimum amount of holiday days a full-time employee should receive in total per annual leave year is 28 days. This includes the eight bank holidays, which means they should receive a minimum of 20 additional days of annual leave. It’s illegal to give full-time employees less than 28 days total leave in the UK.

What happens if the employee works on bank holidays?

If an employee works on bank holidays, they’re still entitled to a minimum of 28 days off in total – or more if that’s written into their employee contract. If they have to work on all bank holidays, they should be able to choose when to take the 28+ days leave off. And likewise, if they’re working on some bank holidays and not others, you treat their leave as a total sum with any non-working bank holiday day deducted from the total amount of annual leave they’ve got left to use.

Do any extra bank holidays impact holiday entitlement?

The law states that 28 days in the statutory minimum holiday entitlement for full-time employees, which didn’t change with the introduction of new bank holidays in 2022 and 2023, and won’t for any future additions either. Therefore the extra days don’t mean you have to give your employees this day as a holiday, or increase their holiday entitlement if they work over bank holidays for example.

However, be wary of what your employee contracts say. If the wording in your employee contract states ‘the employee receives bank holidays off work’ or something to that effect, you will have to grant any new bank holidays as days off as well. In short, you have to follow the wording in your employee contracts.

You should also consider employee relations when deciding whether to give the extra bank holiday as annual leave – especially if you work in a business when other bank holidays are taken off. Although in the short-term it will mean one less day of productivity from your workforce, in the long term allowing employees to enjoy this unique celebration may improve employee feeling towards you as an employer, as well as engagement and retention.

How many bank holidays do part-timers get in England and Wales?

Part time workers are due a pro-rata amount of whatever the full-time employee receives in total holiday days.

Usually part-time workers will miss a few bank holidays due to their working schedule – for example, if they work Tuesday to Fridays they’ll miss the six bank holidays that fall on Monday in 2024. But this doesn’t mean they get less annual leave than their colleagues who work Monday to Thursday. They’re still entitled to the same amount of time off, it’s just that they’ll get to choose when to take the time off.

We advise against separating leave into bank holidays and other leave as this often leads to miscalculations, particularly for part time employees. How many days you need to allocate for bank holidays may change from year to year due to the Christmas bank holidays falling on different working days. Therefore, we advice to give the full entitlement to employees and then inform them that if a bank holiday falls on their normal working day they must use one of their holidays on this day.

Previous bank holidays

Bank holidays for England and Wales in 2022

In 2022, the British public have received two extra bank holiday days, which is a rare occurrence. This gave people a total of ten bank holidays in the year. This was due to the national celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee in summer, and then a day to mourn her passing on the day of her funeral on 19th September.

Bank holidays for England and Wales in 2023

In 2023, the bank holidays for England and Wales were:

Read on to understand how many bank holidays are in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

To calculate part-time holiday entitlement for employees in England and Wales use our calculator here.