Can employees carry over unused statutory annual leave to the next holiday year?

Workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' statutory holiday each year. This is made up of an entitlement to four weeks under reg.13 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) and an additional 1.6 weeks under reg.13A. Generally, the Regulations do not allow the four-week holiday entitlement under reg.13 (which derives from EU law) to be carried forward into the next holiday year (although there are some exceptions, see below).

The position with the additional 1.6 weeks' holiday under reg.13A is different. Regulation 13A allows for a relevant agreement to provide for any of the additional holiday entitlement to be carried forward into the leave year immediately following the leave year in which it falls due.

The Working Time Regulations 1998 are amended from 1 January 2024 to confirm that there are some circumstances in which employees must be allowed to carry over their holiday entitlement. The Regulations confirm that workers can carry forward: 

  • their full 5.6 weeks' holiday entitlement into the next leave year if they are unable to take it due to being on maternity leave (or other types of family leave); and 
  • their four weeks' entitlement, to be taken within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it accrued, if they are unable to take it due to being on long-term sickness absence.

In addition, the Regulations provide that, if a worker does not take their holiday entitlement because their employer has failed to: 

  • recognise their right to paid statutory annual leave;
  • give them a reasonable opportunity to take the leave, or encourage them to do so; or
  • inform them that any untaken leave that cannot be carried forward will be lost at the end of the leave year,

the worker can carry forward their four weeks' entitlement for as long as the employer's failure continues. 

Holiday entitlement is calculated differently for irregular hours and part-year workers with holiday years starting on or after 1 April 2024. These workers can carry over their full holiday entitlement if they have been unable to take it due to family leave, sickness absence or a failure of their employer as set out above.