Public holidays in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, public holidays are days on which most businesses and non-essential services are closed. Many retail businesses (especially the larger ones) do open on some of the public holidays. There are restrictions on trading on Sundays, Easter and Christmas Day in England and Wales and on New Year's Day and Christmas Day in Scotland. Public holidays defined by statute are called "bank holidays", but this term can also be used to include common law holidays, which are held by convention. The term "public holidays" can refer exclusively to common law holidays.^[1]

There is no automatic right to paid time off on these days, or any right to a holiday at all,^[2] but banks close and the majority of the working population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contracts.^[3] Before 1980, collective agreements widely included public holidays as part of a standard entitlement to time off. Schedule 11 of the Employment Protection Act 1975 enabled mandatory extension of collective agreements across sectors, but this was repealed with effect from 1980, and the Fair Wages Resolution 1946 (affecting public sector contracts) was repealed with effect from 1983.^[4] This meant there was no effective legal mechanism for holidays until the Working Time Regulations 1998, based on the Working Time Directive restored 20 and then 28 days paid holidays - however employers do not need to grant paid holidays on public holiday days.

There are eight bank holidays a year in England and Wales, nine in Scotland and ten in Northern Ireland. Additional days have been allocated for special events, such as royal weddings, coronations, and jubilees. There are seven bank holidays common to all jurisdictions: New Year's Day, Good Friday, the early May bank holiday (May Day), the Spring bank holiday, the Summer bank holiday, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Easter Monday is a bank holiday in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but not in Scotland. In Northern Ireland, St Patrick's Day and Orangemen's Day are also bank holidays. In Scotland, 2 January and St Andrew's Day are bank holidays. The Summer bank holiday varies according to jurisdiction: in Scotland, it is on the first Monday in August, and in the rest of the United Kingdom, it is on the last Monday in August.