“2026/27 bank holidays” usually means one of two things: either the full 2026 calendar (spanning most of a 2026/27 financial or academic year), or a comparison of how 2026 and 2027 differ. Here’s both.
The confirmed 2026 calendar
England and Wales get 8 bank holidays in 2026, Scotland 9, and Northern Ireland 10 — see our full 2026 bank holidays UK guide for the complete nation-by-nation list.
What can be said about 2027 with confidence
The UK government typically doesn’t publish the fully confirmed official list for a year until 12–18 months ahead, so treat any specific 2027 date as provisional until it appears on gov.uk. That said, some 2027 dates can already be worked out precisely, because they’re either fixed calendar dates or follow predictable rules:
- New Year’s Day 2027: Friday 1 January.
- Easter Sunday 2027: 28 March, calculated from the standard lunar-based Easter rule — a week earlier than 2026’s 5 April. That puts Good Friday on 26 March and Easter Monday on 29 March.
- St Andrew’s Day 2027 (Scotland): Tuesday 30 November.
- Christmas Day 2027: Saturday 25 December — since this falls on a weekend, a substitute bank holiday would be expected, most likely Monday 27 December, following the same substitution logic used for 2026’s Boxing Day.
Dates like the Early May, Spring and Summer bank holidays, defined as “the first/last Monday of [month],” can also be calculated exactly once the year is known, but aren’t officially confirmed by government until closer to the date.
Why the caution on specifics
Bank holiday dates are set by legislation and government announcement, not purely by calendar arithmetic — while the underlying rules make most dates predictable, treating an unconfirmed date as certain risks being wrong if there’s ever a rule change or one-off addition (as happened with the extra bank holiday for the King’s Coronation in 2023). For anything beyond the fixed and rule-based dates above, check gov.uk closer to the time rather than relying on early projections — including from this page.
For the fully confirmed 2026 list right now, see 2026 bank holidays UK.