UK Holiday Entitlement for Staff: 28 Days, Bank Holidays and Setting It Up in One Go
In short
Most UK staff on a five-day week get at least 28 days' paid holiday, and bank holidays can count inside it. Here is how to set that up in one go.
- Most UK staff on a 5-day week get at least 28 days' paid holiday a year (5.6 weeks), per gov.uk, checked on 6 October 2026.
- Bank holidays do not have to be extra: an employer can count them inside the 28 days.
- England and Wales have 8 bank holidays in 2027, Scotland 9 and Northern Ireland 10, so 20 days of annual leave plus the bank holidays reaches 28, 29 or 30.
Most UK workers on a five-day week are entitled to at least 28 days' paid holiday a year, and an employer may count the bank holidays inside those 28 days. So a common way to set it up is 20 days of annual leave plus the 8 paid bank holidays in England and Wales.
That is the whole sum. The trouble for a café, a shop or a cleaning firm is not the sum, it is getting it into the rota and the leave record correctly before the first holiday request arrives, and noticing when a choice you made quietly takes someone below the minimum.
How much holiday UK staff are entitled to
Here is the short version of what gov.uk says. It is the background to the set-up, not the point of this article, so read the page itself for anything unusual about your staff.
- 5.6 weeks a year. gov.uk's holiday entitlement page says almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, and that most workers on a 5-day week "must receive at least 28 days' paid annual leave a year". Checked on 6 October 2026.
- Capped at 28 days. The same page says statutory paid holiday is limited to 28 days, so somebody working 6 days a week is still entitled to 28.
- Part-time staff get it pro rata. Its example: a worker on 3 days a week gets at least 16.8 days (3 × 5.6).
- Bank holidays are not automatically extra. gov.uk says bank or public holidays do not have to be given as paid leave, and an employer can choose to include them in the statutory annual leave.
This is general information, not legal advice: check with gov.uk, Acas or an employment lawyer for your case.
- 28 days: for most staff on a 5-day week
- 5.6 weeks: the same entitlement in weeks
- 16.8 days: for someone on 3 days a week
Do bank holidays count as annual leave?
They can. This is the question owners search for most, and the answer is the one the 20 + 8 set-up is built on: you may count the bank holidays inside the 28 days, or you may give them on top. Either is fine; what matters is that the total reaches the minimum and that your contract says which you do.
The catch is that the number of bank holidays is not the same across the UK. Using gov.uk's bank holidays list, checked on 6 October 2026, 2027 has:
| England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank holidays in 2027 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| With 20 days of annual leave | 28 days | 29 days | 30 days |
| Days only this region has | Easter Monday | 2nd January, St Andrew's Day | St Patrick's Day, Battle of the Boyne |
So 20 days of annual leave plus the bank holidays reaches the 28-day minimum exactly in England and Wales, and goes past it in Scotland and Northern Ireland. If you have one shop in Leeds and one in Glasgow, the two teams do not have the same days off.
Where it goes wrong in a small business
Owners rarely get the 28 wrong on paper. It goes wrong in three quieter places:
- A bank holiday is given unpaid. If the shop closes on a bank holiday and nobody is paid for it, those days are not counting towards the 28, and 20 days of annual leave alone is below the minimum.
- A regional day is missed. A Glasgow team that never gets St Andrew's Day put in the rota, or a Belfast team without St Patrick's Day.
- The leave record lives in a notebook. gov.uk's holiday pay page says that from 6 April 2026 employers must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least 6 years (checked on 6 October 2026). A paper diary of who took which day is hard to keep for that long.
Setting it up in one go with the Starter pack
Shiftelio is a staff rota, clocking in and leave app for small businesses. For UK companies it has a Starter pack: one screen that adds the usual bank holidays and leave types for your country in one go.
Open Leave and holidays, then Open starter pack. Only the company owner (or a co-owner) can use it.
Choose England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Each one brings its own bank holidays, read from gov.uk.
Every bank holiday for the year is listed with a tick box. A day you already added says "already added", and a date that has passed is skipped. Leave Paid days off switched on if staff are paid for these days.
In England and Wales it says: Annual leave 20 days + 8 paid bank holidays = 28 days, the legal minimum. If you untick a bank holiday or switch off paid days off, it warns you that annual leave alone (20 days) is below the legal minimum of 28 days.
The pack offers Annual leave, 20 days a year, paid, and Sick leave for tracking sick days only. Nothing is ticked for you, and a leave type you already have is never changed.
Tap Add to my company. The screen tells you how many holidays it added and what it left as it was. Nothing you had already saved is deleted.
After that, staff ask for leave from their phone and you approve it, and every approved day stays on their leave record instead of in a diary.
Two things the pack deliberately does not do
- It adds no overtime rule for the UK. gov.uk's overtime page says the employment contract will usually include any overtime pay rates and how they are worked out (checked on 6 October 2026). So the pack says "This pack adds no overtime rule. Your contract decides."
- It does not calculate Statutory Sick Pay. The sick leave type is for tracking days only.
Part-time and irregular-hours staff need their allocation edited by hand: the 20 days is for someone on a full five-day week.
A worked example: two cafés, two countries
Priya runs a café in Leeds and another in Glasgow, 14 staff between them. She picks England and Wales in the Starter pack, ticks the 8 bank holidays and adds Annual leave at 20 days. Everyone in Leeds is now on 28.
For Glasgow she adds the Scottish days that England does not have, such as St Andrew's Day, by hand in Leave and holidays and sets them for the Glasgow branch only, because Shiftelio lets a holiday belong to one branch without giving it to everybody. Leeds staff do not get a day off they are not owed, and Glasgow staff do not lose one.
Which app sets up UK holiday and bank holidays for you?
You can see how it fits a UK business on the Shiftelio UK page.
Questions owners ask
How many days holiday is a full-time UK employee entitled to?
At least 28 days a year for most staff on a five-day week. gov.uk calls this 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, and it is capped at 28 days even for someone working six days.
Do bank holidays count as annual leave in the UK?
They can. gov.uk says an employer may include bank holidays in the statutory annual leave, so 20 days plus 8 bank holidays reaches 28 in England and Wales.
Does Shiftelio add Scottish and Northern Irish bank holidays?
Yes. In the Starter pack you pick England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and it lists that region's bank holidays from gov.uk.
Will the Starter pack overwrite holidays or leave types I already set up?
No. A holiday you already added shows as already added, a leave type you already have is never changed, and nothing saved is deleted.
Does Shiftelio calculate holiday pay?
No. It keeps the leave and the bank holidays, and the sick leave type is for tracking days only. Work out holiday pay with your payroll provider.