UK employers must allow carry-forward in four situations: long-term sickness (up to 4 weeks, used within 18 months), statutory family leave (full 5.6 weeks), employer failure to enable leave-taking, and for irregular hours workers in those same circumstances. Outside these, carry-forward is at your discretion. Put it in writing anyway: a written policy sets the voluntary limit, the expiry date and how to apply, stops informal carry-forward piling up with no cap or payout rule, and from 6 April 2026 you must keep records of any leave carried.
When carry-forward is mandatory
Since 1 January 2024, the Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended) force employers to allow carry-forward in four situations. A policy or contract cannot override these:
- Long-term sickness. Leave the employee could not take because they were off sick carries over, up to 4 weeks (20 days for a five-day week). It must be used within 18 months.
- Statutory family leave. Maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, ordinary parental or parental bereavement leave: the full 5.6 weeks carries, with no fixed statutory deadline.
- Employer failure. If you do not give a real chance to take leave, or fail to warn (every year, before year-end) that unused leave will be lost, up to 4 weeks carries and keeps building until you fix it. This is the one most employers miss.
- Irregular hours and part-year workers. Under Regulation 15B, the full 5.6 weeks carries in those same situations, not just 4 weeks.
Outside these four, you can run a strict use-it-or-lose-it policy. There is no general right to carry leave over.
Say Priya has 5 of her 28 days left in late December and is then signed off sick for two weeks. She could not take those 5 days, so they carry into the new year and she has 18 months to use them. That is mandatory, not a favour.
Full rules and the 18-month sickness explainer: Annual leave carry forward rules UK 2026.
Making your policy decisions
Before you write your clauses, make three choices. The table shows the common options.
| Decision | Options | When it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Voluntary carry-forward: yes or no? | Strict use-it-or-lose-it, or allow up to a set number of days. | Use-it-or-lose-it suits tight-capacity teams. Voluntary carry suits project or seasonal peaks near year-end. |
| How many days? | Common limits: 5 days, 10 days, the full Regulation 13A allowance (8 days for a five-day week), or unlimited above the statutory minimum. | Five days is the usual compromise. It cuts the year-end rush without a large future liability. |
| Expiry deadline? | Q1 deadline (e.g. 31 March), a fixed date, or the first three months of the new leave year. Must be firm and in writing. | A Q1 deadline stops carry-forward drifting into the next year and repeating the problem. |
You can agree to carry forward the 1.6-week Regulation 13A entitlement (for one leave year only) and any contractual leave above the statutory minimum. You cannot voluntarily carry the 4-week Regulation 13 pot: that only carries in the four mandatory situations above. This matters if a worker leaves and you try to cap a carried Regulation 13 entitlement they had a statutory right to.
Sample policy approach: the five-day Q1 cap
The most common voluntary arrangement in UK SMEs is a five-day cap, approved by the manager before year-end, with a Q1 expiry (31 March, or three months from the leave year end). The clauses below use this as the default. Each drafting note tells you where to change it.
Copy-and-paste policy template
The wording below is a complete 12-clause carry-forward policy. Adapt the placeholders, pick between the drafting-note options, then delete the notes before you issue it. Prefer Word? Download the same policy below.
Carry-forward leave policy template (UK)
The full 12-clause policy as an editable Word document. Drop your details into the bracketed fields, read the drafting notes, then delete them before you issue it.
- 12 clauses covering mandatory and voluntary carry-forward
- Blue placeholders show where to add your details
- Drafting notes explain the choices only you can make
- Statutory and discretionary rights clearly separated
- Document control panel and disclaimer included
1. Purpose and scope
This policy sets out [Company Name]'s rules for carrying forward unused annual leave from one leave year to the next. It applies to all employees. Workers on irregular hours or part-year contracts are covered by clause 6. Contractors are not covered unless their contract says otherwise.
2. The leave year and entitlement
The Company's leave year runs from [start date] to [end date]. Each employee's statutory entitlement is 5.6 weeks per year, made up of four weeks under Regulation 13 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and 1.6 weeks under Regulation 13A. The Company's full contractual entitlement is [X] days per year for a full-time employee.
3. Mandatory carry-forward: long-term sickness absence
Where an employee has been unable to take up to four weeks (20 days for a five-day-week employee) of their Regulation 13 statutory leave because of long-term sickness, that leave will be carried forward to the following leave year. The carried leave must be taken within 18 months from the end of the leave year in which it accrued. Any carried leave not taken by that deadline will expire, but must be paid out if the employee leaves before the deadline.
4. Mandatory carry-forward: statutory family leave
Where an employee has been unable to take some or all of their statutory leave because they were on maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, shared parental leave, ordinary parental leave, or parental bereavement leave, their full 5.6 weeks of statutory leave entitlement will be carried forward to the following leave year. There is no fixed statutory use-by date for this carried leave; the Company expects employees to use it in the leave year immediately following their return wherever practicable.
5. Mandatory carry-forward: employer failure to enable leave-taking
If the Company fails to recognise an employee's right to paid annual leave, fails to give the employee a reasonable opportunity to take leave and to encourage them to do so, or fails to warn the employee (before the year ends) that leave not taken will be lost, the employee is entitled to carry forward up to four weeks of their Regulation 13 leave for as long as the failure continues. The Company will take all reasonable steps to avoid this situation by maintaining a system of leave tracking, giving managers the information they need to manage leave-taking, and issuing a year-end reminder to all staff before the leave year closes.
6. Mandatory carry-forward: irregular hours and part-year workers
Employees on irregular hours or part-year contracts, whose entitlement accrues under Regulation 15B of the Working Time Regulations 1998, are entitled to carry forward their full 5.6 weeks of statutory entitlement in the same circumstances described in clauses 3, 4 and 5. The 18-month use-by window in clause 3 also applies to sickness carry-over for these workers.
7. Discretionary carry-forward
Outside the mandatory circumstances in clauses 3 to 6, annual leave does not carry forward automatically. With prior written approval from their line manager, an employee may carry forward up to [5 days] of their Regulation 13A entitlement or contractual leave above the statutory minimum. Approval is at the manager's discretion and may be declined if the business needs require the employee to take leave within the leave year.
8. Applying for discretionary carry-forward
Requests to carry forward leave under clause 7 must be submitted no later than [e.g. 1 December, or two weeks before the leave year end] and approved in writing before the leave year closes. Requests submitted after that date will not be considered. Approval must be recorded in the Company's leave system.
9. Expiry of discretionary carry-forward leave
Leave carried forward under clause 7 must be used by [e.g. 31 March in the following leave year, or within three months of the leave year end]. Leave not used by that date will expire and will not be paid out, unless the employee is leaving employment (see clause 10).
10. Carry-forward on leaving employment
When employment ends, the Company will calculate each employee's leave entitlement for the final leave year on a pro-rata basis, including any leave validly carried forward from the previous year under clauses 3, 4, 5 or 6. Leave taken in excess of the pro-rata accrued entitlement will be recovered from the final pay. Leave accrued but not taken, including valid carried-forward leave that has not yet expired, will be paid out at the employee's normal daily rate. Leave that has expired under the deadline in clause 9 before the termination date does not need to be paid out.
11. Record-keeping
In line with the statutory record-keeping duty in force from 6 April 2026, the Company will maintain a record for each employee showing: (a) their statutory and contractual leave entitlement for the leave year; (b) leave taken during the year; (c) any leave carried forward, the basis for the carry (mandatory or discretionary), and any applicable expiry date; and (d) the balance at the end of each leave year. Records will be kept for at least six years and will be made available to the employee on request.
12. Policy review
This policy will be reviewed at least once a year and updated whenever relevant legislation changes. The current version is dated [date]. Previous versions are held by HR. Questions about the policy should be directed to [HR contact / line manager].
Manager checklist
At year-end (before the leave year closes)
During the new leave year
Book Time Off shows carried-forward days as a labelled balance with their use-by date, separate from the current year. When the expiry date arrives the carried balance drops automatically, and every approval is logged. The checklist above becomes a five-minute review, not a spreadsheet exercise. Start your free 30-day trial.
Record-keeping from April 2026
From 6 April 2026 you must keep records of leave taken and holiday pay paid for each worker, for at least six years, and for carried leave that means logging how much carried, on what basis, and its use-by date. Clause 11 of the template covers this; the sibling guide explains the duty in full at carry-forward record-keeping rules.
Related guidance
Sources
Primary sources
| GOV.UK | Holiday entitlement: carrying over holiday · Overview of carry-over rights and employer responsibilities. Checked June 2026. |
| Legislation.gov.uk | Working Time Regulations 1998 · Regulation 13 (4-week entitlement), Regulation 13A (1.6-week entitlement), Regulation 15B (irregular hours workers). Checked June 2026. |
| Legislation.gov.uk | Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 · The January 2024 amendments codifying carry-over scenarios and introducing Regulation 15B. Checked June 2026. |
| GOV.UK | Holiday pay and entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024 · Government guidance on the 2023 amendments including carry-over codification. Checked June 2026. |
| ACAS | Carrying over holiday · Practical guidance on when carry-over is allowed and employer responsibilities. Checked June 2026. |