UK Bank Holidays 2027: Dates for England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland

England and Wales have 8 bank holidays in 2027, Scotland has 9, and Northern Ireland has 10. The year opens with New Year’s Day on Friday, January 1, 2027, and closes with two substitute days in late December, because Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day falls on a Sunday that year. Easter arrives early, with Easter Sunday on March 28, 2027 — a full week earlier than in 2026.

This guide covers the confirmed date for every UK bank holiday in 2027 by nation, the legal rules that generate substitute days, statutory entitlement and pro-rata pay rules for employees, DWP and benefit payment-date shifts, and what stays open or closed.

UK Bank Holidays 2027: Full List by Nation

The UK does not have one single bank holiday calendar. England and Wales share one list, Scotland has its own list with 9 dates, and Northern Ireland has its own list with 10 dates.

All three lists overlap on six core dates but diverge on Easter Monday, the timing of the Summer bank holiday, and several nation-specific observances.

England and Wales Bank Holidays 2027

England and Wales observe 8 bank holidays in 2027, running from New Year’s Day in January to the substitute Boxing Day holiday in December.

The Early May bank holiday falls on the first Monday of May by default. In some years, the government has moved this date to mark a national anniversary — the 2025 Early May bank holiday shifted from Monday, May 5 to Friday, May 8 to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day. No such change has been announced for 2027.

Scotland Bank Holidays 2027

Scotland observes 9 bank holidays in 2027. Scotland does not treat Easter Monday as a bank holiday, but it adds 2 January and St Andrew’s Day, and its Summer bank holiday falls at the start of August rather than the end.

The 2nd January holiday normally falls on that fixed date, but 2 January 2027 lands on a Saturday. Following the standard substitute-day rule, the holiday moves to the next available weekday, Monday, January 4, 2027 — not Sunday, January 3, which several third-party calendar sites incorrectly list. St Andrew’s Day, November 30, 2027, falls on a Tuesday and requires no substitute.

Northern Ireland Bank Holidays 2027

Northern Ireland observes 10 bank holidays in 2027 — the most of any UK nation. It follows the England and Wales list in full and adds St Patrick’s Day and the Battle of the Boyne.

St Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2027, falls on a Wednesday and requires no substitute. The Battle of the Boyne holiday, marking the 1690 battle and commonly called “The Twelfth,” falls on a Monday in 2027, so it does not shift either.

Key Facts About the 2027 Bank Holiday Calendar

Easter 2027 Falls Unusually Early

Easter 2027 falls on March 28, 2027, one of the earlier dates possible on the ecclesiastical calendar, which places Easter between March 22 and April 25.

Good Friday falls on March 26, 2027, and Easter Monday falls on March 29, 2027. This is roughly three weeks earlier than Easter 2026 (April 5) and shifts the entire spring bank-holiday cluster forward: the Easter break arrives before most UK schools reach their usual spring half-term, which typically sits in mid-to-late February regardless of the Easter date.

Families and schools that plan around a combined half-term-and-Easter break should note the two events do not overlap as closely in 2027 as they do in later-Easter years.

Why Christmas Day and Boxing Day Both Move in 2027

Christmas Day and Boxing Day both move to substitute weekdays in 2027 because 25 December falls on a Saturday and 26 December falls on a Sunday, and UK bank holiday rules never allow a bank holiday to sit unobserved on a non-working day.

The substitute-day rule works as follows: when a bank holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the holiday is observed on the next available weekday that is not already a bank holiday. Applied to 2027:

• Christmas Day (Saturday, December 25, 2027) moves to Monday, December 27, 2027.
• Boxing Day (Sunday, December 26, 2027) moves to Tuesday, December 28, 2027, because Monday is already occupied by the Christmas Day substitute.

This same mechanism produced Scotland’s 2 January substitute (Monday, January 4, 2027), following the identical logic one week earlier in the year.

The Legal Basis for UK Bank Holidays 2027

Not every UK bank holiday rests on the same legal footing. Bank holidays fall into three distinct categories:

• Statutory bank holidays — created under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which lists fixed dates in Schedule 1 for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland separately. This is why the three nations’ lists differ in the first place; the Act treats them as separate legal territories for this purpose.
• Common law holidays — Good Friday and Christmas Day are not created by the 1971 Act at all. They are observed under long-standing common law custom that predates the statute, though in practice they function identically to statutory bank holidays for closures and pay.
• Royal proclamation — additional one-off bank holidays, including the Platinum Jubilee holiday on Friday, June 3, 2022, the state funeral holiday for Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, September 19, 2022, and the Coronation holiday for King Charles III on Monday, May 8, 2023, are all created individually by proclamation rather than by amending the Act.

No royal proclamation for an additional 2027 holiday has been announced. Fixed-date and Easter-linked holidays are set by law and do not require a fresh proclamation each year; only one-off additions do.

How Many Bank Holidays Does the UK Get Compared With Other Countries?

England and Wales’ 8 bank holidays sit both the EU average and most comparable economies. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) puts the EU average at 12.8 public holidays a year, nearly 5 more than England and Wales receive, and notes that every EU member state offers more public holidays than the UK.

Romania, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland and Cyprus top the EU table with 15 days each, nearly twice the England and Wales total, while Japan offers 17 public holidays a year.

Scotland’s 9 and Northern Ireland’s 10 narrow the gap but still fall short of the EU average.

The Campaign for More UK Bank Holidays

The TUC has campaigned for additional UK bank holidays since at least the early 2000s, most recently renewing its call for four extra days to bring the UK total to 12.

The TUC argues all UK workers should receive at least 12 public holidays a year and is calling for a national conversation about which new dates to add.

A related but distinct 2017 general election proposal from the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn specifically proposed turning each nation’s patron saint day — St David’s Day (March 1), St Patrick’s Day (March 17), St George’s Day (April 23), and St Andrew’s Day (November 30) — into UK-wide bank holidays. Neither proposal has been enacted; the current statutory totals of 8, 9, and 10 remain unchanged for 2027.

Why Isn’t St George’s Day a Bank Holiday in England?

St George’s Day, April 23, is not a bank holiday in England for any statutory or historical reason tied to its significance — it has simply never been added to the 1971 Act’s schedule or granted by proclamation.

Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland all recognize a nationally significant day connected to their patron saint (St David’s Day, St Andrew’s Day, and St Patrick’s Day, respectively, though only the latter two are formal bank holidays), which leaves England as the only UK nation with no bank holiday tied to its patron saint.

This gap is the specific point raised in TUC and Labour proposals for four additional bank holidays, discussed above.

Bank Holiday Entitlement and Pay in 2027: What Workers Are Owed

Full-Time Statutory Holiday Entitlement

UK workers are entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave a year, equal to 28 days for a full-time worker on a 5-day week.

This entitlement is set by the Working Time Regulations 1998 and applies from the first day of employment, with no qualifying period.

Bank holidays are not a separate legal entitlement on top of this — an employer can count some or all bank holidays toward the 28-day statutory minimum, or grant them in addition, depending on the contract.

A contract stating “28 days including bank holidays” leaves 20 flexible days once the 8 England and Wales bank holidays are deducted; a contract stating “28 days plus bank holidays” gives 28 flexible days on top of whichever bank holidays apply.

Part-Time and Pro-Rata Bank Holiday Entitlement

Part-time workers receive the same 5.6-week entitlement as full-time workers, calculated in direct proportion to the days they work. The formula is: (days worked per week ÷ 5) × 5.6 = statutory entitlement in days.

A worker on a 3-day week is entitled to 16.8 days a year, not a flat fraction of the 8, 9, or 10 named bank holidays. Where the resulting figure is not a whole number, employers must round up, never down.

Irregular-hours workers accrue leave at 12.07% of hours worked per pay period rather than using the days-per-week formula.

Do You Get Paid Extra for Working a Bank Holiday?

UK law does not guarantee extra pay for working a bank holiday. Whether a worker receives premium pay, a day off in lieu, or standard pay for working on a bank holiday depends entirely on the employment contract, not on statute.

This applies to full-time, part-time, and zero-hours workers alike. Some employers voluntarily offer time-and-a-half or double pay for bank holiday shifts, particularly in retail and hospitality, but this is a contractual benefit rather than a legal right.

This is one respect in which UK bank holiday law differs from several other European systems, where premium pay for holiday working is a statutory requirement rather than an optional employer benefit.

DWP and Benefit Payment Dates Around the UK Bank Holidays 2027

How the DWP’s Early-Payment Rule Works

DWP-administered benefits are not paid on the bank holiday itself when a normal payment date coincides with one.

GOV.UK guidance confirms that benefit payments are moved to the working day immediately before whenever the normal payment date falls on a weekend or bank holiday, an arrangement that applies across the entire United Kingdom, including Scotland, despite its different bank holiday calendar.

The payment amount does not change; only the date moves, and the following payment resumes on its normal schedule.

DWP Payment Dates Around UK Bank Holidays 2027

Applying this rule to the confirmed 2027 bank holiday dates for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland produces the following working-day-before shifts.

Where two bank holidays fall consecutively, the payment date moves back past both.

*A payment due on Easter Monday, March 29, 2027, moves back past the intervening weekend and past Good Friday itself, landing on Thursday, March 25, 2027 — the same shifted date as a Good Friday payment.

Scottish claimants have two additional trigger dates not shown above. A payment normally due on the 2nd January substitute (Monday, January 4, 2027) moves back past the weekend and past New Year’s Day, landing on Thursday, December 31, 2026 — even earlier than the equivalent England and Wales shift.

A payment due on St Andrew’s Day (Tuesday, November 30, 2027) moves to the preceding working day, Monday, November 29, 2027.

This table is calculated by applying DWP’s published working-day-before rule to the confirmed 2027 calendar; DWP typically confirms the exact payment-date list for each bank holiday in official guidance closer to the date itself, so claimants should verify their individual assessment period against their online Universal Credit account or DWP correspondence nearer the time.

Which Benefits and Payments Are Affected

The early-payment rule covers Universal Credit, State Pension, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Attendance Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, and Disability Living Allowance (DLA), along with Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Pension Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, and the Industrial Injuries Compensation Scheme.

Child Benefit follows the same working-day-before principle through HMRC rather than DWP, since HMRC administers it separately.

What’s Open and Closed on UK Bank Holidays 2027

Banks and Financial Services

Banks close on all statutory bank holidays, which is the origin of the term “bank holiday.”

This applies uniformly across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland on their respective lists, though many banking services continue to function through online and mobile banking during closures.

Branch-specific 2027 opening confirmations from individual banks are typically published closer to each date rather than a full year in advance.

Supermarket and Shop Opening Hours

Major supermarkets — including Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl, and Morrisons — do not publish store-specific 2027 opening hours this far in advance, since exact hours are usually confirmed a few weeks before each bank holiday and can vary store by store. The consistent, year-over-year pattern across UK bank holidays is as follows:

Readers planning around a specific 2027 date should check individual retailer websites once hours are confirmed, generally within 4 to 6 weeks of the holiday.

Royal Mail and Post Office Deliveries

Royal Mail does not deliver post on any UK bank holiday, including regional-only holidays such as St Andrew’s Day in Scotland or the Battle of the Boyne in Northern Ireland — delivery pauses apply only in the nation observing that specific holiday. Post Office branches follow the same closure pattern as banks on bank holidays.

Public Transport and the London Congestion Charge

The London Congestion Charge does not apply on any of the eight England and Wales bank holidays, including both 2027 substitute days for Christmas and Boxing Day, consistent with Transport for London’s standing exemption for bank holidays.

Rail operators generally run a reduced, Sunday-style timetable on bank holidays rather than a full weekday service, though exact 2027 timetables are published by individual operators closer to each date.

How to Maximise Annual Leave Around the 2027 Bank Holidays

Booking annual leave immediately adjacent to a bank holiday weekend produces a longer break than booking the same number of days elsewhere in the year, because the leave “bridges” a weekend to an already-non-working bank holiday block.

The Easter bridge is the strongest single opportunity in 2027, because Good Friday and Easter Monday already form a 4-day weekend on their own; adding the preceding working week converts it into a full 10-day break for a cost of only 4 leave days.

Scottish employees, who do not receive Easter Monday as a bank holiday, would need one additional day of leave (Monday, March 29) to achieve the equivalent 10-day break.

School Holidays Around the 2027 Bank Holidays

School holiday and half-term dates for 2026/27 and 2027/28 are set individually by each local authority and academy trust in England, and separately by education authorities in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland — there is no single national school calendar.

This page does not list specific half-term dates, since they vary by region and are typically confirmed by individual councils and schools 12 to 18 months in advance rather than fixed by the bank holiday calendar itself.

Families should check their specific local authority or school’s published term dates rather than assume alignment with the bank holidays listed above, particularly around Easter 2027, which falls earlier than usual and may not overlap with a school’s spring half-term in the way it does in later-Easter years.

Adding the 2027 Bank Holidays to Your Calendar

Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar each support adding a standing UK holiday calendar rather than entering dates manually. In Google Calendar, “Holidays in United Kingdom” is available as a preset addable calendar under “Other calendars,” updated automatically for future years including 2027.

In Outlook, holidays can be added under Calendar settings by selecting “United Kingdom” from the country list, which populates upcoming years automatically.

Apple Calendar includes a similar built-in UK holidays option under Calendar preferences. None of these require a manually downloaded file, since all three platforms maintain their own updated UK holiday data sets.

Frequently Asked Questions About UK Bank Holidays 2027

Across all four UK nations, the 2027 bank holiday calendar totals 13 distinct dates, ranging from 8 in England and Wales to 10 in Northern Ireland.

The defining feature of the year is the weekend collision at both ends of the calendar — Scotland’s 2 January and, separately, Christmas Day and Boxing Day — which pushes four holidays onto substitute weekdays.

Easter’s unusually early date, March 28, 2027, is the second major planning factor, shifting the entire spring bank-holiday cluster roughly three weeks ahead of where it fell in 2026.