Our aim is simple: every date on this site should match the official record, and every explanation should be easy to check.
Sources
Dates come from the GOV.UK bank holidays data. For rules and history we use primary sources first: legislation on legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK guidance, announcements by the UK and devolved governments and royal proclamations published by the Privy Council Office. We link to the source next to the statement it supports. We do not publish dates that we cannot trace to one of these sources, and calculated future years are always marked provisional.
Writing and updating
Each page answers one question first, then explains it. Pages that mention specific years are reviewed when the year changes and whenever the official data changes. A page shows a new update date only when its content has actually changed.
Dates from data, not from text
Calendars, tables, counts and countdowns are generated directly from the official data, so they change automatically when GOV.UK changes a date. Dates mentioned in the text are checked against the same data whenever it changes.
Independence and advertising
We are independent of the UK government and of any bank. Advertising, when it runs, is clearly labelled “Advertisements” and has no influence on what we publish. See our advertising page.
Corrections
If you find an error, please tell us via our contact page. We check the report against the official source and correct confirmed errors promptly. Significant corrections to a rule or date are noted on the affected page.