Carrying over annual leave: when it’s allowed, and when it’s required.

Most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, up to 28 days. In the Working Time Regulations that is two parts: four weeks under regulation 13 and 1.6 weeks more under regulation 13A.

The four weeks can only be taken in the leave year they are due, apart from the exceptions below, and can’t be swapped for pay unless the job ends. The same goes for the additional weeks: paying someone instead of letting them take their holiday is only allowed when they leave. Without an agreement that allows carry-over, staff should take their holiday during the leave year, unless there’s a good reason they can’t.

• The additional 1.6 weeks can be carried into the next leave year if a relevant agreement says so.
• A relevant agreement can be a workforce agreement with employee representatives, a collective agreement with a recognised trade union, or an agreement that can be legally enforced, such as the employment contract.
• Holiday above the legal minimum is contractual, so the contract should say whether any of it can be carried over, and how much.

If someone can’t take their holiday because they are off sick, they can carry it over, up to four weeks. It must be used within 18 months from the end of the leave year it was built up in.

Holiday keeps building up while someone is off sick, so a long absence can leave a lot untaken. That is why it is worth knowing early who is likely to be off at the year end.

If statutory leave, such as maternity leave, stops someone taking some or all of their holiday, they must be allowed to carry it over into the next leave year. This covers both the four weeks and the additional 1.6 weeks. Acas suggests agreeing it with them as early as possible.

Holiday also keeps building up during maternity, paternity and adoption leave, so someone back from a year’s leave may return with a full year’s holiday, plus whatever they carried.

Employers have a legal responsibility to make sure workers can take the holiday they’re entitled to. Since 1 January 2024, a worker can carry leave over if their employer:

• didn’t recognise their right to paid holiday;
• didn’t give them a reasonable chance to take it, or encourage them to;
• didn’t tell them that holiday not taken would be lost.

This covers leave not taken, and leave taken but not paid, of the four weeks under regulation 13 (the extra 1.6 weeks under regulation 13A are not covered by this rule). It can’t be carried forward beyond the end of the first full leave year in which none of these failures applies any more (regulation 13(17) and (18)).

Irregular-hours and part-year workers have their own rules, which Acas covers separately: in these situations they can carry over up to 5.6 weeks.

• Tell staff in good time how much holiday they have left, and that anything not taken will be lost.
• Give them a reasonable chance to book it, and encourage them to.
• Write down your carry-over rule for any extra weeks: how much, and by when it must be used.
• Keep the reminders you send. Our holiday records guide covers what to keep, and for how long.