UK Bank Holidays 2028: Every Date for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Last verified 29 July 2026 against the official GOV.UK bank holidays dataset.

The UK has 13 bank holiday dates in 2028 — 8 in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland. The year opens with new year’s day on Monday 3 January and closes with boxing day on Tuesday 26 December.

UK bank holidays 2028: the full list

Every bank holiday date observed anywhere in the UK in 2028, in order. A tick means the date is
a statutory bank holiday in that nation.

Substitute days in 2028

• New Year’s Day is observed on Monday 3 January — the actual date falls on a weekend, so the day off moves to the next working day.
• 2nd January is observed on Tuesday 4 January — the actual date falls on a weekend, so the day off moves to the next working day.

Bank holidays 2028 by nation

England and Wales — 8 bank holidays

England and Wales share the same list. There is no separate Welsh bank holiday: St David’s Day
(1 March) is widely marked but has never been made statutory. See the
England and Wales pages.

Scotland — 9 bank holidays

Scotland trades Easter Monday for the 2 January
holiday and St Andrew’s Day, and takes its Summer bank
holiday at the start of August. In Scotland most bank holidays are set by local authorities and
banks rather than by statute, so council and employer variation is wider than elsewhere in the UK.
More on the Scotland page.

Northern Ireland — 10 bank holidays

The longest list in the UK, adding St Patrick’s Day
and the Battle of the Boyne. See the
Northern Ireland page.

Long weekends in 2028

Every stretch of three or more consecutive days off created by a 2028 bank holiday, with no
annual leave booked at all. Calculated from the GOV.UK dates for each nation.

How to stretch your 2028 annual leave

The best-value bookings of 2028 for England and Wales — each row is the longest
continuous break you can build for that number of leave days. Only the leave counts that actually
buy you a longer break are listed: where the 2028 calendar leaves no working day to bridge, there
is no row.

The long gaps in 2028

Bank holidays are not spread evenly. In England and Wales, 2028 has two long stretches with no
day off at all:

• 119 days — Monday 28 August (Summer bank holiday) to Monday 25 December
  (Christmas Day).
• 102 days — Monday 3 January (New Year’s Day) to Friday 14 April
  (Good Friday).

Scotland and Northern Ireland break these stretches with their own holidays — see the
tables above.

2026, 2027 and 2028 compared

The England and Wales bank holidays never change — only the weekdays they land on do.
Dates marked * are substitute days.

Full calendars: the current year ·
2027 ·
2028 ·
2025. See also
the next bank holiday and
how many bank holidays the UK has.

Pay, time off and working on a 2028 bank holiday

A bank holiday is not automatically a paid day off in the UK. There is no statutory right to time
off on a bank holiday, and no statutory right to enhanced pay for working one. What you get depends
on your contract — the law guarantees 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave, and an employer may
count the bank holidays inside that allowance.

• Bank holiday pay
• Bank holiday entitlement
• Working on bank holidays
• Bank holiday pay calculator

What is open on a 2028 bank holiday

Banks and most public offices close, large shops in England and Wales trade normally on bank
holiday Mondays, and public transport runs to a Sunday timetable. Check
Royal Mail,
bin collections,
parking rules,
GP surgeries and
bank branches.