UK bank holidays 2027

2027 bank holidays by nation

There are 8 bank holidays in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland in 2027. Days marked substitute are weekdays that stand in for a holiday that falls on a weekend.

England and Wales — 8 bank holidays

Scotland — 9 bank holidays

Northern Ireland — 10 bank holidays

What is different about 2027

Early Easter

Good Friday is Friday 26 March and Easter Monday is Monday 29 March, so the Easter weekend falls in March. Easter Sunday is Sunday 28 March. For comparison, Good Friday is 3 April in 2026 and 14 April in 2028. Easter Monday is a bank holiday in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland but not in Scotland, where Good Friday is the only Easter bank holiday.

Christmas and Boxing Day

Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday, so the bank holidays move to Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December. Every nation gets the same two substitute days. In 2026, Christmas Day was a Friday and only Boxing Day moved, to Monday 28 December.

New Year

New Year's Day is a Friday (1 January) in every nation. The next New Year's Day, 1 January 2028, is a Saturday, so England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland take Monday 3 January 2028 instead — worth knowing if you are planning a long Christmas break.

Scotland

2 January falls on a Saturday, so Scotland's 2 January holiday moves to Monday 4 January. Scotland's summer bank holiday is Monday 2 August (the first Monday in August), 28 days earlier than the 30 August summer bank holiday in England and Wales. St Andrew's Day is Tuesday 30 November. Scotland has 9 bank holidays in 2027, compared with 10 in 2026 — the extra 2026 holiday was the World Cup bank holiday, Monday 15 June 2026.

Northern Ireland

St Patrick's Day is Wednesday 17 March and the Battle of the Boyne is Monday 12 July. In 2026, 12 July fell on a Sunday, so the holiday moved to Monday 13 July; in 2027 it falls on the day itself. Northern Ireland has 10 bank holidays; England and Wales has 8.

Bank holiday counts, 2026–2028

How the number of bank holidays changes from year to year.

Planning your 2027 leave

These plans are for England and Wales (Scotland has no Easter Monday, so its Easter break is shorter). Each shows the leave you would book for the days off, counting weekends and bank holidays.

Best value: Christmas and New Year — book 3 days, get 10 days off (Saturday 25 December 2027 – Monday 3 January 2028).

For every option, including the shorter bridges, see the full leave hacks guide.

Not sure how many days you get? Use the holiday entitlement calculator.

Bank holidays and your annual leave

There is no legal right to have bank holidays off work, or to be paid extra for working one. Whether they count towards your annual leave is set by your contract. If your employer gives them on top of the statutory 28 days, someone in England and Wales gets 28 + 8 = 36 days off across 2027. If they are included within your 28 days, you have 20 days to book yourself.

Part-time staff and shift workers can be affected differently, depending on which days they work. The holiday entitlement calculator works it out for your hours, and the main bank holidays page explains the two approaches in more detail.

Source for the dates: GOV.UK bank holidays.

Frequently asked questions

More bank holiday dates

• All UK bank holidays, 2026–2028
• Is today a bank holiday?
• Annual leave hacks
• Bank holiday overlap checker