Types of holiday
Bank holiday
A day set as a holiday by the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 or by royal proclamation, plus the common-law holidays below. England and Wales usually have 8 a year, Scotland 9 and Northern Ireland 10. See the list of UK bank holidays.
Public holiday
In everyday use, the same as a bank holiday. In the narrower sense, a public holiday is a day kept through custom and practice, such as Christmas Day, and in Scotland councils can also set local public holidays.
Common-law holiday
Christmas Day and Good Friday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They are not on the 1971 Act’s list for those regions but are holidays by common law, that is by custom. They appear in the GOV.UK data like any other bank holiday.
Substitute day
The weekday that becomes the bank holiday when the usual date falls at a weekend. GOV.UK says this is normally the following Monday. In 2026 Boxing Day is a Saturday, so the substitute day is Monday 28 December; see Christmas bank holidays.
Local holiday (Scotland)
A day off set by a Scottish council for its own area. mygov.scot says each council has powers to make certain days local public holidays, while bank holidays are the same across Scotland. Local holidays are not in the bank holiday data or on our Scotland page.
Provisional date
Our label for a bank holiday date that GOV.UK has not yet published. We calculate it from the usual rules, and it can change if a proclamation moves or adds a day. GOV.UK currently confirms dates up to 2028; our methodology explains the calculation.
Laws and proclamations
Bank Holidays Act 1871
The first law to create bank holidays. For England and Ireland it named Easter Monday, the Monday in Whitsun week, the first Monday in August and 26 December; Scotland had its own list. Its title is where the term “bank holiday” comes from.
Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971
The current law. Schedule 1 lists the bank holidays separately for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Section 1 lets the monarch move or add bank holidays by proclamation.
Royal proclamation
A formal order by the monarch that appoints, moves or adds a bank holiday under section 1 of the 1971 Act. Several regular dates are set this way: the proclamation for 2027 appoints New Year’s Day and the early May bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 12 July in Northern Ireland. Scotland’s World Cup bank holiday on 15 June 2026 was also made by royal proclamation.
Privy Council
The Privy Council Office publishes the bank holiday proclamations approved by the King, together with the related sealing orders. For example, a proclamation of 8 July 2026 appoints 1 January, 3 May and 28 December 2027 as bank holidays in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The bank holidays
New Year’s Day
1 January, a bank holiday in all UK regions, with a substitute weekday when it falls at a weekend. See New Year bank holidays.
2nd January
An extra bank holiday in Scotland only. In 2027 the 2nd is a Saturday, so the bank holiday moves to Monday 4 January.
St Patrick’s Day
17 March, a bank holiday in Northern Ireland only. In 2027 it falls on a Wednesday. See St Patrick’s Day.
Good Friday
The Friday before Easter Sunday, a bank holiday in all UK regions: 3 April 2026 and 26 March 2027. In Scotland it is on the 1971 Act’s list; elsewhere it is a common-law holiday. See Easter bank holidays.
Easter Monday
The Monday after Easter Sunday, a bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but not in Scotland. In 2027 it falls on 29 March.
Early May bank holiday
The first Monday in May in all UK regions, such as 3 May 2027. See May bank holidays.
Spring bank holiday
The last Monday in May in all UK regions, such as 31 May 2027. It can be moved for a national occasion, as in 2022. See spring bank holiday.
Whit Monday
The Monday after Whitsun (Pentecost), which moves with Easter. It was a bank holiday under the 1871 Act; the 1971 Act’s list has the last Monday in May instead, now called the spring bank holiday.
Battle of the Boyne (Orangemen’s Day)
12 July, a bank holiday in Northern Ireland only. In 2026 the 12th was a Sunday, so the bank holiday was Monday 13 July; in 2027 it is Monday 12 July. See July bank holiday.
Summer bank holiday
The last Monday in August in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (30 August 2027), and the first Monday in August in Scotland (2 August 2027). See August bank holiday.
St Andrew’s Day
30 November, a bank holiday in Scotland since the St Andrew’s Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007. If it falls at a weekend, the following Monday is the bank holiday. See St Andrew’s Day.
Boxing Day
26 December, a bank holiday in all UK regions. When it falls at a weekend a substitute weekday follows: Monday 28 December 2026 and Tuesday 28 December 2027.
Work, pay and payments
Working day
In our tools, a Monday to Friday that is not a bank holiday in the chosen region. Contracts and deadlines can define it differently, so check the document that uses the term. See the working days calculator.
Business day
A term used in contracts and by payment systems for a day on which business is normally done. The exact meaning is set by the contract or the rules of the payment system, not by bank holiday law.
Statutory annual leave
The legal minimum of paid holiday: 5.6 weeks a year, which is at least 28 days for someone working five days a week. GOV.UK confirms that employers can include bank holidays in it.
Bacs
The UK payment system used for Direct Debits and Direct Credits. The CIPP notes that Bacs only works on standard banking days and runs on a three-day cycle, which is why pay dates move around bank holidays. See the payday calculator.
Faster Payments
A UK payment system for bank transfers, run by Pay.UK. Pay.UK says the Faster Payment System is available day and night, 365 days per year. See banks and payments on bank holidays.
CHAPS
A payment system settled through the Bank of England’s RTGS service. The Bank of England’s timetable has CHAPS settlement starting at 6am and ending at 5.40pm for customer payments, on business days.
Sources: GOV.UK bank holidays data and Privy Council proclamations. Checked 4 November 2026.