Annual leave policy template for UK employers
Eleven clauses that cover how much holiday your staff get, how they book it and what happens to the days they don't take. Download the Word file, fill in the highlighted choices, and read under each clause the GOV.UK rule it rests on.
Before you fill it in
The statutory minimum in Great Britain is 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, 28 days for someone working five days a week (GOV.UK). Most of this policy is about the choices above that floor: whether bank holidays are on top, how much notice you want, how many days carry over and when they expire. Make those choices once, write them here, and set up whatever you track leave with to match them.
Square brackets mark each choice; the figures in them are common examples, not recommendations. The policy covers England, Wales and Scotland; Northern Ireland has its own regulations.
The policy, clause by clause
This policy sets out how much paid annual leave you get at [Company name], how to book it and what happens to leave you don't use. It applies to every employee [in England, Wales and Scotland] and forms part of your terms of employment.
1. Leave year
Our leave year runs from [1 January] to [31 December]. Your entitlement is for the leave year, and you need to take it within that year except where clause 8 lets you carry it over.
Why and how: If a contract doesn't set a leave year, it starts on the worker's first day (GOV.UK). In Absenca each office sets the month its leave year starts, or runs it from each person's start date (anniversary mode).
2. How much leave you get
Full-time employees working five days a week get [25] days' paid annual leave a year, plus the [8] bank and public holidays [in England and Wales], [33] days in total. This includes your statutory entitlement of 5.6 weeks.
Part-time employees get the same entitlement in proportion to the days they work. For example, someone working 3 days a week gets [3 ÷ 5 × 33 = 19.8] days, including bank holidays.
If you work irregular hours or only part of the year, you accrue leave at 12.07% of the hours you work in each pay period, as the law requires for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.
Why and how: The legal floor is 5.6 weeks, 28 days for a five-day week, and an employer can count bank holidays in it (GOV.UK). A three-day week is at least 16.8 days. In Absenca a part-timer goes on their own leave policy with the pro-rated days. Work out irregular hours with the 12.07% calculator.
3. Extra leave for length of service
After [3] full years of service your annual entitlement goes up by [1] day, and after [5] years by [3] days in total. Years of service are counted from your start date.
Why and how: Leave above the statutory 5.6 weeks doesn't have to follow every statutory rule, so you can attach service conditions to it (GOV.UK, "Extra leave"). In Absenca each leave type takes service tiers ("after 3 years, +1 day"); the highest tier a person has reached applies.
4. Joining or leaving part-way through the year
If you join part-way through the leave year, you get one-twelfth of your annual entitlement for each month left in the year, rounded up to the nearest half day.
If you leave, we pay you for statutory leave you've accrued and not taken. If you've taken more leave than you've accrued, you agree that we will deduct the difference from your final pay.
Why and how: GOV.UK's example: a 28-day worker starting on 13 January accrues 2.33 days for January, rounded up to 2.5. Taken-but-unearned leave can only come out of final pay if the worker agreed to it in writing beforehand, which this clause does (GOV.UK).
5. Booking leave
Book leave through [Absenca] and wait for your manager to approve it before making plans. Give at least [twice as many days' notice as the leave you're asking for]; for leave of more than [5] days, give at least [4 weeks'] notice.
Your manager will approve or decline the request within [5 working days]. If it is declined, they will tell you why and suggest other dates where they can.
You can book leave in [half days].
Why and how: Without a contract term, the worker's notice is twice the leave plus one day and an employer refusing must give as much notice as the leave plus one day (GOV.UK). Absenca sets a minimum notice in days per leave type and refuses a request with less; it's one fixed number, so set it to the notice your policy asks. Half days, or hours in 15, 30 or 60-minute steps, are switched on per leave type.
6. Busy periods and how many people can be off
Annual leave can't normally be taken during [the last two weeks of each financial quarter]. We publish these blackout dates at least [3 months] in advance.
No more than [2] people from the same team can be on leave on the same day. Requests are approved in the order they are received.
Why and how: An employer can restrict when leave is taken, such as busy periods, if the contract allows it (GOV.UK). In Absenca a blackout period covers a whole office or one department, and an employee's own request inside it is refused; a manager booking leave on someone's behalf isn't held to it. Each department can also carry a maximum number of people off at once.
7. Company closure days
We close between [Christmas Day and New Year's Day]. You need to keep [3] days of your entitlement for these days, and we will confirm the dates by [1 October] each year.
Why and how: An employer can tell staff when to take leave, giving notice at least twice as long as the leave (GOV.UK). In Absenca a manager can book the closure for everyone in their team in one go.
8. Carrying leave over
You can carry up to [5] days of unused leave into the next leave year. Carried-over days must be taken within the first [3 months] of the new leave year, or they are lost. Any other leave you don't take by the end of the leave year is lost.
This doesn't apply where the law says leave carries over: if you couldn't take leave because you were off sick or on family leave, or because we didn't give you a reasonable opportunity to take it.
Why and how: For a 28-day entitlement, up to 8 days can be carried over if the contract allows. Leave missed through sickness carries over up to 20 days for regular-hours workers, and all of it carries over if the employer didn't give a reasonable chance to take it or didn't warn it would be lost (GOV.UK). In Absenca each leave type sets a carry-over cap, and each office sets how many months into the new year carried-over days expire.
9. Sickness and leave
You keep accruing annual leave while you're off sick. If you're sick before or during booked annual leave, tell your manager [on the first day of sickness]. [We will treat those days as sick leave, and you can take the annual leave later.]
Why and how: Workers build up holiday while off sick and can ask to take holiday during sick leave; an employer can't force a sick worker to take leave (GOV.UK). For sick pay, see the SSP calculator.
10. Holiday pay and payment instead of leave
You are paid your normal pay while on annual leave. We can't pay you instead of taking your statutory leave, except for leave you haven't taken when you leave us.
Why and how: At least 4 weeks are paid at the normal rate, which includes regular overtime and commission, and the other 1.6 weeks at least at the basic rate. Payment in lieu of statutory leave is only allowed on leaving (GOV.UK).
11. Records
We keep a record of the leave you're entitled to, the leave you take and the holiday pay you receive for six years.
Why and how: From 6 April 2026 employers must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least 6 years (GOV.UK). Absenca keeps each request with its dates, who approved or declined it, when and any note.
Putting the policy into practice
A policy only works if the record matches it. Whichever way you track leave, check that the leave year, allowances, carry-over cap and expiry, notice and blackout dates match what you've written. In a spreadsheet, that's the Excel leave tracker with your leave-year start date and holidays loaded. For employees, the holiday request form follows the same notice rules, and the annual leave calculator pro-rates entitlement for part-timers and joiners.
Last checked on against GOV.UK's holiday entitlement guidance. This is general guidance, not legal advice; your contracts decide the details.
Frequently asked questions
- Do UK employers need a written annual leave policy?
- The law doesn't require a separate policy, but the written statement of employment particulars must state the holiday entitlement and whether it includes public holidays. A policy is where the rest lives: the leave year, notice, carry-over and blackout periods. Without one, the default rules in the Working Time Regulations apply.
- Can bank holidays count towards the 28 days?
- Yes. An employer can include bank holidays in the 5.6 weeks of statutory leave, so a full-time worker on 28 days including the 8 bank holidays in England and Wales has 20 days to book. The template's clause 2 shows the alternative: 25 days plus bank holidays.
- How many days can employees carry over?
- Up to 8 days of a 28-day entitlement, if the contract allows it. Leave missed through sickness or family leave carries over by law, and all of it carries over if the employer didn't give a reasonable chance to take it or didn't warn it would be lost.
- Can I edit the template?
- Yes. It's a Word file that opens in Word, Google Docs and Pages. Every highlighted [bracket] is a choice to make: replace it with your figure, or delete the option you don't use.
Run the policy, not just write it
Absenca holds each clause as a setting: the leave-year start per office, allowances and service tiers per leave type, minimum notice, carry-over caps and expiry, blackout periods and a cap on how many people in a department are off at once. It's free for up to 10 people.