UK workers' annual leave: what the 2026 data tells employers

The statutory entitlement floor

Every worker in the UK accumulates paid annual leave from the first day of employment. The Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) set the statutory minimum at 5.6 weeks per leave year. For a standard five-day week, that is 28 days. The 28-day figure is a ceiling on what counts as the statutory minimum, so additional contractual leave is common but the law does not require it.

The 5.6 weeks is actually two separate entitlements in the regulations:

• Regulation 13 (four weeks): the EU-derived layer. This cannot be paid out during employment, and it cannot be carried forward except in specific legal circumstances (sickness, maternity, family-related statutory leave, or where the employer failed to provide a genuine opportunity to take it). Most workers lose this leave if they do not take it in the leave year.
• Regulation 13A (1.6 weeks): the UK-added layer. Employers may agree in writing that this can be carried forward into the next leave year, or paid in lieu by a contractual enhancement.

What the 2024/25 HSE data shows

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publishes annual statistics on work-related ill health based on the Labour Force Survey. The 2024/25 figures, released in November 2025, paint a clear picture of the cost of poor wellbeing at work.

Stress, depression and anxiety account for more than half of all working days lost to work-related ill health (22.1 million of 40.1 million). The 2024/25 figure of 22.1 million is the highest the HSE has recorded for this category, continuing an upward trend that began before the pandemic and has not reversed.

The connection to annual leave usage is not a direct causal claim in the HSE's own data, but the research context is well-established: regular periods of genuine disconnection from work are one of the primary mechanisms for preventing the cumulative stress buildup that leads to extended absence. When workers do not take leave, or feel unable to, the wellbeing cost accrues invisibly until it becomes measurable as sickness absence.

The cost in context

Each of those 22.1 million days represents a worker who was unwell and unable to work. At the UK median daily wage, the direct replacement and lost-output cost runs into many billions of pounds a year across the economy. For an individual small business with ten staff, one serious stress-related absence episode can mean weeks of under-capacity.

Why leave goes unused

Several recurring patterns explain why workers do not use their full entitlement. Employers who understand the causes can address them directly.

Workload pressure and timing

The most common reason workers cite for not taking leave is that the workload simply does not allow it, or that cover is not available when they want to go. In teams where one person holds critical knowledge or ongoing client relationships, there is a real operational tension between taking leave and keeping work moving. This is a resourcing problem dressed up as a leave problem.

Implicit management pressure

Workers who observe that managers do not take their own leave, or who receive signals that absence is frowned upon, will take less leave regardless of what the handbook says. ACAS guidance is clear that workers should not be penalised, formally or informally, for taking their statutory entitlement. A culture where leave is treated as a cost to the business rather than a legal right is a culture that will generate more stress-related absence.

Saving leave as a buffer

Some workers deliberately hold leave in reserve for emergencies, or accumulate it ahead of a specific event such as a house move or a family holiday. This is rational individually but can produce a pattern where a large block of leave is taken or lost in the last quarter of the year, creating a predictable peak in absence requests when cover is already stretched.

The employer's legal obligations

UK employment law does not simply give workers a right to leave and leave it at that. It also places positive obligations on employers.

The duty to facilitate leave

Case law has established that an employer cannot argue a worker has lost their Regulation 13 entitlement if the employer failed to provide a genuine opportunity to take it. Workers must be clearly informed of their entitlement, encouraged to take it, and must not be penalised for doing so. An employer who allows leave to lapse by design, through persistent overwork or understaffing, may face a claim for the unlawfully withheld entitlement.

Directing when leave is taken

Regulation 15 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 gives employers the power to require workers to take leave on specific dates, provided notice is given at least twice as long as the leave period. So to require a worker to take one week's leave, the employer must give at least two weeks' advance notice. This power is used legitimately for:

• Company-wide Christmas and New Year shutdowns
• Ensuring workers use leave before year-end rather than carrying large balances
• Operational requirements such as factory or site closures

The same regulation allows employers to refuse a leave request for a business reason, providing counter-notice at least as long as the leave period. This must be a genuine reason, and the employer still cannot prevent the worker from taking their full statutory entitlement over the course of the leave year.

No payment in lieu during employment

It is unlawful under Regulation 13 to pay a worker in lieu of the four weeks' EU-derived leave while they remain employed. The only lawful payment in lieu of annual leave is on termination of employment, when any accrued but untaken statutory leave must be paid out at the worker's correct rate of holiday pay. The additional 1.6 weeks under Regulation 13A can be paid in lieu by a written contractual agreement, but this is not available for the core four weeks.

How entitlement varies by working pattern

The 5.6-week entitlement is the same for everyone, but the number of days it produces depends on how many days a week the worker is contracted to work.

For workers with no fixed hours, such as those on zero-hours or irregular contracts, the entitlement accrues at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period. This is the rate set by the Working Time Regulations 1998 and confirmed by HMRC guidance on rolled-up holiday pay: it reflects 5.6 weeks as a proportion of the 46.4 remaining working weeks in a year (52 minus 5.6). See our guide to calculating annual leave entitlement for the worked examples.

Leave year and carry-forward rules

The leave year runs for 12 months, starting on whatever date the employer sets (1 January, 1 April, and 1 October are the most common start dates). Workers accrue entitlement continuously throughout the year from the first day of employment.

The default: use it or lose it

The default position under the Working Time Regulations is that leave must be taken in the leave year in which it accrues. Workers cannot carry forward Regulation 13 leave (the four-week EU-derived entitlement) unless one of the following applies:

• The worker was unable to take leave because of sickness absence
• The worker was on statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, or other family-related leave
• The employer failed to give the worker a genuine opportunity to take the leave

For Regulation 13A (the additional 1.6 weeks), carry-forward can be agreed in writing. See our detailed guide on annual leave carry-forward rules for the full framework including post-sickness and pandemic special rules.

Carry-forward and the employer's interests

Employers who allow large balances to accumulate face a liability: on termination, all accrued statutory leave must be paid out. A worker who carries forward five days and then leaves immediately after the new year has a payable balance of those five days on top of any accrued entitlement. Good leave management means monitoring balances throughout the year, not just at the year-end crunch.

Building a healthier leave culture

The employers least affected by the stress-related absence figures in the HSE data tend to share a common set of practices. These are not expensive initiatives. They are mostly about making the expectation clear and the mechanics easy.

If your team is managing leave via email and a shared calendar, the practical overhead of steps two and three above is significant. A dedicated leave system removes the friction: requests, approvals, clash-checking, remaining balances and the year-end overview all happen in one place without manual updates.