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Book a demoThere are 8 UK bank holidays in 2027 in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland. The first is New Year's Day on Friday 1 January, and the year ends with two substitute days on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December, because Christmas Day and Boxing Day both land on a weekend.
Those dates matter more to a small business than they look. At Charlie, I'm in charge of making sure our processes run smoothly, and that includes the weeks when a quarter of the team wants the same days off around a bank holiday. If you only spot the clash when the requests land, you've already lost the chance to plan for it.
2027 has a couple of quirks worth knowing about early. Easter falls in March, so the first long weekend arrives right at the end of the quarter. And the Christmas substitute days mean three days of annual leave can turn into nine days off in a row. Just in 2026, we will have more than half the team break off during the Christmas holiday. My recommendation (depending on your industry) is to encourage your team to take the time off and maximise it then, as the business slows downs and everyone switches off.
Below you'll find every 2027 bank holiday for each part of the UK, the dates still to come in 2026, and what I'd do as a founder or HR lead to plan around them.
England and Wales have 8 bank holidays in 2027. In the United Kingdom, bank holidays are public holidays when most businesses are closed. UK bank holidays are determined by the government.
Another thing to keep in mind is that most bank holidays fall on a Monday or a Friday. This is so that the bank holiday can be part of an extended long weekend.
This is great if you want to take a beach trip to Brighton for the weekend. It's less great if you're an HR professional at a small business.
A substitute day is the weekday that replaces a bank holiday falling on a weekend. In 2027, Christmas Day is a Saturday and Boxing Day is a Sunday, so the days off move to Monday and Tuesday.
Scotland has 9 bank holidays in 2027. It adds 2 January and St Andrew's Day, moves the summer bank holiday to the start of August, and doesn't have Easter Monday.
Northern Ireland has 10 bank holidays in 2027: the 8 in England and Wales, plus St Patrick's Day and the Battle of the Boyne.
If your team works across more than one nation, the dates won't line up. Someone in Edinburgh has a day off on 4 January and 2 August; someone in Belfast has St Patrick's Day and 12 July. Write down in your policy which calendar each person follows, usually the one where they're based.
There are two bank holidays left in 2026 across the UK, plus one more in Scotland:
Expect the most leave requests around late March, May and the week between Christmas and New Year. That's where one bank holiday plus a few days of annual leave turns into a proper break, and your team will spot it as quickly as you do.
Good Friday is 26 March and Easter Monday is 29 March. If your financial year ends on 31 March, your year-end close falls two days after a four-day weekend, with plenty of people likely to stretch it into a fortnight. Get finance deadlines and handovers agreed before the long weekend, not after.
The early May and spring bank holidays are four weeks apart (3 May and 31 May). Many people will want one of them, and some will want both. It also may be a good idea to avoid launching important projects close to bank holiday dates.
With the substitute days on 27 and 28 December, booking just Wednesday 29 to Friday 31 December gives someone nine days off in a row. Expect a lot of requests for those three days, and decide early whether you'll close for the week or need cover. At Charlie, for example, we encourage people to take these days off as business slows down during this period. It’s not mandatory, and if people don’t want to take them (fair enough), just ensure they’re extra prepared for end-of-the-year projects.
Your team can do this math too. The earlier you share the calendar and your rules on how many people can be off at once, the fewer awkward "sorry, someone got there first" conversations you'll have.
No. There's no legal right to have bank holidays off, or to extra pay for working them. What your team gets depends on their employment contract. If you're an HR professional working behind the scenes to manage time off in a small business, the contract is the first place to look.
Full-time workers in the UK are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week. You can count bank holidays as part of that 28, or give them on top.
For example, Charlie gives all employees 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays. However, this can vary from business to business. Whatever you choose, spell it out in your contracts and leave policy so nobody's guessing in December.
A staffing challenge can quickly compound into a staffing problem if multiple employees request time off around bank holidays simultaneously. A few things help:
There are 8 bank holidays in England and Wales in 2027, 9 in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland.
Easter Sunday is 28 March 2027. Good Friday (26 March) is a bank holiday across the UK, and Easter Monday (29 March) is a bank holiday everywhere except Scotland.
Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday in 2027. When a bank holiday lands on a weekend, a substitute weekday is given instead, so the days off are Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December.
No. You're not obligated to stay closed on bank holidays. Whether staff get extra pay or a day off in lieu for working a bank holiday depends on their contract, not the law.
If you give full-time staff bank holidays off, part-time staff should get the same leave pro-rated to the days they work.
For instance, say a part-time employee works three days a week. They would be entitled to 60% of the eight bank holidays or 4.8 days. In Scotland that's 5.4 days, and in Northern Ireland 6.
Yes, you can feel free to include bank holidays in your annual leave entitlement. However, that has to be clearly stated for the record in your employee contracts.
For example, if your annual leave policy gives "28 days of annual leave including bank holidays", then employees do not get extra days for bank holidays.
Managing annual leave requests around bank holidays can be extremely frustrating when they all pile up at once. That's a place where the Charlie platform can be very helpful.
Charlie automates annual leave tracking for you. No more messing about with manual calculations and spreadsheets such as an Excel holiday tracker; everything is done within the platform itself.
For example, if your business is usually closed on bank holidays, Charlie will automatically take that into account in all holiday pro-rata calculations.
Charlie pre-fills your company calendar with all the 2027 UK bank holidays. That saves you the extra bother of entering them in yourself.
Charlie gives you the flexibility to adjust and pro-rate your holiday allowances based on your specific company policy. The system can be customised to fit your needs whether your team works on bank holidays or not.
CharlieHR automatically flags when there are time-off overlaps, with multiple team members requesting holidays at the same time. This way, you can think twice before approving time off that may cause staff shortages down the line.
You'll also get the chance to see if any team members have any carry over annual leave they need to take.
