Holiday Entitlement Calculator UK 2025/26 — Annual Leave Rights
Work out your statutory annual leave entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998. Whether you work full-time, part-time, or on irregular/zero-hours contracts, our free calculator gives you your minimum paid holiday rights for 2025/26 — including bank holidays and the post-Harpur Trust rules for irregular hours workers.
UK Holiday Entitlement Rights — Working Time Regulations 1998
The right to paid annual leave in Great Britain is governed by the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR), which implement the EU Working Time Directive into domestic law. Post-Brexit, the core rights remain in force and are now underpinned by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023, which preserved the WTR's holiday provisions (with some modifications from January 2024).
The 5.6 Weeks Minimum — What It Means
Every worker (not just employees) is entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave per year. For a standard full-time worker working 5 days per week, this translates to 28 days per year. The maximum statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days regardless of how many days per week you work — working 6 days a week, for example, does not increase your statutory entitlement beyond 28 days.
| Days Worked/Week | Statutory Leave (days) | Statutory Leave (hours, 8hr day) | Bank Hols (England & Wales) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 (full-time) | 28 days | 224 hours | 8 days (usually included in 28) |
| 4 | 22.4 days | 179.2 hours | Pro-rata ~6.4 days |
| 3 | 16.8 days | 134.4 hours | Pro-rata ~4.8 days |
| 2 | 11.2 days | 89.6 hours | Pro-rata ~3.2 days |
| 1 | 5.6 days | 44.8 hours | Pro-rata ~1.6 days |
Can Employers Count Bank Holidays as Part of the 28 Days?
Yes. The WTR does not specify whether bank holidays must be given on top of the 5.6 weeks entitlement — this is left entirely to the employment contract. Many employers in the UK provide 20 days of annual leave plus 8 bank holidays, giving a total of 28 days and exactly meeting the statutory minimum. Other employers provide the 28 days as fully discretionary leave on top of bank holidays, giving a total of 36+ days — this is contractual benefit, not a legal requirement.
Your employer can require you to take annual leave on specific dates (e.g., over Christmas or during a company shutdown), provided they give you at least twice as much notice as the period of leave required. They can also refuse your requested dates if they give you notice equal to the length of the leave period you requested.
Holiday Pay — What Must You Be Paid?
Holiday pay must reflect your normal remuneration — not just basic salary. Following a series of Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal cases (including Lock v British Gas and Bear Scotland v Fulton), HMRC and ACAS guidance confirms that holiday pay must include:
- Regular overtime (including voluntary overtime worked with sufficient regularity)
- Commission payments that form part of normal remuneration
- Shift allowances and regular bonuses intrinsically linked to the performance of tasks
- Standby and on-call payments that are regularly received
For the 2025/26 statutory framework, holiday pay is calculated using a 52-week reference period (weeks in which no work or pay was received are excluded and replaced by earlier weeks, up to 104 weeks back). This replaced the old 12-week reference period for variable pay situations.
The Harpur Trust v Brazel Supreme Court Ruling (2022)
The Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022] UKSC 21 significantly changed how holiday entitlement is calculated for part-year workers — those employed on permanent or continuous contracts but who only work for part of the year (e.g., term-time teaching assistants, seasonal hotel staff on year-round contracts).
The Court held that the WTR requires holiday entitlement to be calculated as 5.6 weeks of paid leave regardless of the proportion of the year actually worked. For variable-hours workers with permanent contracts, this means:
- The worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid leave per leave year.
- Holiday pay for each week of leave is calculated using the 52-week reference period (excluding non-working weeks).
- The previous practice of multiplying hours worked by 12.07% to calculate holiday entitlement is unlawful for part-year workers on permanent contracts.
From 1 April 2024, regulations introduced by the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 permit employers to pay rolled-up holiday pay to irregular hours workers and part-year workers only. Under rolled-up pay, an additional 12.07% is added to each payment (representing the 5.6/46.4 weeks ratio). This approach remains unlawful for regular workers with fixed hours and for workers whose annual leave entitlement exceeds the WTR minimum.
Holiday Accrual During Sick Leave and Family Leave
Workers continue to accrue statutory annual leave during periods of:
- Sick leave — including long-term sickness absence. If a worker cannot take accrued leave due to ill health, they can carry it over for up to 18 months.
- Maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave — the full 52 weeks of maternity leave counts for accrual purposes, even the 13 weeks of unpaid Additional Maternity Leave.
- Paternity leave — both statutory paternity leave periods accrue leave at the normal rate.
Carry-Over of Annual Leave
Under the WTR, workers can carry over up to 4 weeks of unused holiday into the next leave year if they were unable to take it due to sickness or family leave. Since the 2023 regulatory amendments, the rules have been codified more clearly:
- The basic 4 weeks of EU-derived leave can be carried over for up to 18 months if the reason for non-use is sickness.
- The additional 1.6 weeks of UK-only leave carries different rules — employers can restrict carry-over to 1 year by contract.
- If an employer fails to provide the opportunity to take leave, workers can now carry over up to 4 weeks for up to 18 months.
If you leave your job part-way through the leave year, you are entitled to pay in lieu of any accrued but untaken statutory holiday. Conversely, if you have taken more holiday than you have accrued, your employer may be entitled to deduct the excess from your final pay — but only if your contract expressly permits this. Always check your contract before leaving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Zero-hours workers are entitled to paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998 in the same way as other workers. From April 2024, employers of irregular hours workers and part-year workers may use rolled-up holiday pay (adding 12.07% to each payment) rather than paying a lump sum when leave is taken. If your employer does not use rolled-up pay, your holiday entitlement accrues based on the hours you work, calculated using the 52-week reference period (or the actual weeks worked if fewer than 52). You cannot be denied holiday entitlement just because your contract has no fixed hours.
Yes. Your employer can require you to take annual leave on specific dates — for example, during a Christmas shutdown or factory closure. To do so lawfully, they must give you written notice of at least twice the length of the leave period they are requiring you to take (e.g., 4 weeks' notice for a 2-week shutdown). They can also refuse to allow leave on your requested dates, provided they give you notice equal to the period of leave requested. However, they cannot prevent you from taking your full statutory entitlement during the leave year — doing so would expose them to a WTR claim.
Part-time workers have the right not to be treated less favourably than comparable full-time workers under the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000. If full-time colleagues receive bank holidays as additional leave on top of their annual leave allowance, part-time workers must receive the pro-rata equivalent. However, if bank holidays are included within the overall 28-day statutory entitlement for everyone, part-time workers simply receive their pro-rata share of the total 28 days (e.g., 16.8 days for a 3-day week worker) and it is up to them how they use it.
It depends on the circumstances. Under the WTR, employers can legitimately restrict carry-over for the 1.6 weeks of additional UK leave. However, the 4 weeks of EU-derived leave cannot be lost at the end of the leave year if the reason the worker could not take it was sickness, or if the employer failed to enable the worker to exercise their right to leave (for example, by not informing them they had leave available or by creating a culture that discouraged taking leave). In those circumstances, the leave carries over and, upon termination of employment, must be paid out. Contact ACAS for free guidance specific to your situation.
For workers with variable pay, holiday pay must be calculated based on the average remuneration earned over the preceding 52 weeks in which pay was actually received (weeks with no pay are excluded and replaced by the next earlier week, going back up to 104 weeks). This must include regular overtime, commission, and other elements of normal pay. Your employer should provide you with a written statement of how your holiday pay has been calculated if you ask for one. If you believe your holiday pay is being undercalculated (for example, your employer is ignoring regular overtime), you can bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal within 3 months of the underpayment.
Yes. Holiday entitlement begins accruing from the first day of employment — there is no qualifying period for statutory annual leave rights. Many employers, however, specify in contracts that leave may not be taken during a probationary period, or that leave requests require manager approval. This is permissible, but the employer cannot prevent you accruing the entitlement — if your probation ends part-way through the leave year, you are entitled to take or be paid for the leave you have accrued up to that point. If you leave during the probationary period, you are entitled to pay in lieu of accrued statutory leave.