UK Bank Holiday
A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom and also in the Republic of Ireland. There is no right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population not employed in essential services (e.g. utilities, fire, ambulance, police, health-care workers) receive them as holidays; those employed in essential services usually receive extra pay for working on these days. Bank holidays are often assumed to be so called because they are days upon which banks are shut, but this is not in fact the case. Some of the assumed bank holidays are days on which the banks are shut but are not, in fact, a bank holiday (e.g. Good Friday and Christmas Day).
Legislation allows certain payments to be deferred to the next working day.
In the United States, banks are generally closed on all federal holidays, but the term bank holiday refers specifically to emergency bank closures mandated by executive order or act of Congress to remedy financial crises, for example the Emergency Banking Act of 1933.
Date | Name | England and Wales | Scotland |
Northern Ireland | Republic of Ireland |
8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | ||
1 January | New Year's Day | X | X | X | X |
2 January | 2nd January | X | |||
17 March | St. Patrick's Day | X | X | ||
The Friday before Easter Sunday | Good Friday | X | X | X | |
The day after Easter Sunday | Easter Monday | X | X | X | |
First Monday in May¹ | May Day Bank Holiday (or Early May Bank Holiday in Scotland) / Labour Day (called this in Ireland) | X | X | X | X |
Last Monday in May² | Spring Bank Holiday | X | X | X | |
First Monday In June | June Bank Holiday | X | |||
12 July | Battle of the Boyne - Orangemen's Day | X | |||
First Monday in August | Summer Bank Holiday | X | X | ||
Last Monday in August | Summer Bank Holiday | X | X | ||
Last Monday in October | October Bank Holiday | X | |||
30 November | St. Andrew's Day | X | |||
25 December | Christmas Day | X | X | X | X |
26 December | Boxing Day, St. Stephen's Day | X | X | X | X |