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Bank Holiday dates are set for a shake-up in 2026 and 2027 across the UK, with three ‘substitute days’ in the pipeline. While there are eight bank holidays in the UK in 2025, they won’t all fall on the same dates for the following two years.
This year, we’ll be enjoying UK-wide bank holidays on Monday, May 5, as well as Monday, May 26, and on December 25 and December 26. Over in Northern Ireland, Monday, July 14, marks the Battle of the Boyne bank holiday, while in Scotland, Monday, August 4, is the Summer bank holiday.
For the rest of the UK – that’s England, Wales and Northern Ireland – this year’s Summer bank holiday falls on Monday, August 25. And only Scotland will observe the St Andrew’s Day bank holiday on Monday, December 1.
In 2026, most of the dates will remain roughly the same. Across the UK, we’ll get days off on January 1, and then we’ll enjoy a long Easter weekend with days off on April 3 for Good Friday and April 6 for Easter Monday. We’ll also have bank holidays in the UK on May 4, May 25, August 31 and December 25 – Christmas Day, reports Bristol Live.
However, Boxing Day, December 26, won’t be a bank holiday next year as it falls on a Saturday. Instead, we’ll get an extra substitute day off on December 28.
Then in 2027, we’ll once again have a day off on January 1. The Easter 2027 bank holiday dates are set for March 26 and March 29, followed by days off on May 3, May 31, and August 30.
Yet again, the festive bank holidays will be shaken up. On December 25, 2027, Christmas falls on a Saturday, and Boxing Day lands on a Sunday. This shift means we’ll all be treated to two additional days off – brace yourselves for extended celebrations as December 27 and December 28 become our official days off.
Bank holidays in the UK are essentially designed to give us a break from work to celebrate national events, religious milestones, and historic traditions. The term “bank holiday” hails from an era when banks (and consequently many other businesses) would shut down for the day, making it effectively a day off for workers as well.
The concept of a “bank holiday” was solidified with the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, thanks to Sir John Lubbock, who kicked this off. Before Lubbock’s intervention, only religious festivities like Christmas and Easter were officially recognised as time off.
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Lubbock championed the working people by introducing several additional days off, starting with those in England, Wales, and Ireland. Bank holidays in the UK now come about through a mix of approaches:
Statutory holidays: Some are legally established, like the ones in the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. Royal proclamations: The monarch has the power to create new bank holidays or tweak existing ones through Royal proclamation. Conventions and traditions: Certain days have evolved into bank holidays simply because they’ve been observed as such for a long time. One-offs: On rare occasions, unique one-off bank holidays pop up to celebrate major national happenings – like royal weddings or the Queen’s jubilee. Story Saved
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