United Kingdom public holidays 2026

This page shows public holidays for the United Kingdom as returned by Nager Public Holidays (date.nager.at) for the selected country code. In everyday speech many people in Great Britain and Northern Ireland say “bank holiday” for fixed public closures; the exact legal labels and who must close are more detailed than a single list row.

The United Kingdom is not one uniform calendar. England and Wales share many of the same bank holidays, Scotland can differ (for example, some New Year and summer dates), and Northern Ireland has additional or differently dated days. A country code of GB in the API is a single merged feed: it is useful for a quick year-at-a-glance, but it is not a replacement for a Scotland-only or NI-only table when you are booking court hearings, child custody handovers, or school INSET days.

Some Christian-linked dates (such as around Easter) move on the civil calendar year to year; our feed always reflects the year you selected, not a remembered date from a past year. When a name in the data looks like a substitute or extra day, treat it as part of the published set for that year, not a guess by AnyCalendar.

For employment law and pay (including part-time, zero-hours, and shift workers in different nations), the Bank Holiday rules in your contract and the governing jurisdiction matter more than a summary website. The UK government and the devolved administrations publish authoritative lists—use those when a decision is costly or time-sensitive. For this page, use it to plan: when schools might be off, when travel can be busier, and which weekdays look empty on a wall calendar.