Carrying Over Annual Leave: UK Rules Explained

18 February 2026 · Updated 17 August 2026

"Use it or lose it" sounds like settled law. It is not, or at least not always. In several situations you have a statutory right to roll unused holiday into the next leave year, and since 1 January 2024 most of those situations are written into the regulations rather than left to case law. Here is when carry-over is required, when it is a matter for your contract, and when the leave really does lapse.

Understanding the two parts of statutory leave

Your 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday is two separate entitlements with different rules. Regulation 13 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 gives four weeks, which is 20 days on a five-day week, and derives from the EU Working Time Directive. Regulation 13A adds a further 1.6 weeks, or 8 days, which is purely domestic. Most employers treat the 5.6 weeks as one block, and that is where the problems start.

The 4-week portion is the more heavily protected one. It generally can't be replaced with a payment (except when you leave). The 1.6-week portion has a bit more flexibility built in.

The default position: no carry-over

On paper, the default rule is that statutory leave doesn't carry over. The idea is that you should actually take your holiday: it's there for your health and wellbeing, not to be banked like savings. If you just decide not to bother taking your leave and the year ends, technically you lose it.

But. And this is a big but. Court cases and specific circumstances have carved out so many exceptions to this default that it barely holds up as a general rule anymore.

When carry-over is required by law

Sickness preventing you from taking leave

If you have been off sick and could not take your holiday before the leave year ended, you can carry over the regulation 13 four weeks into the next year. The principle came from the European Court of Justice in Stringer v HMRC (C-520/06, heard with Schultz-Hoff), and it is now written directly into regulation 13(10) to (13) of the Working Time Regulations by the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023.

There is a time limit. Leave carried over because of sickness must be taken within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it accrued, or it lapses. On a leave year ending 31 December 2026, that means the carried-over days expire on 30 June 2028. If you are off for a long period you keep a rolling window of protected leave, but the oldest days do eventually fall away.

The extra 1.6 weeks doesn't automatically carry over during sickness. Whether it does depends entirely on your contract or company policy.

Maternity, paternity, and Shared Parental Leave

You keep accruing holiday throughout maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, and shared parental leave. All of it. And since you can't take annual leave at the same time as statutory family leave, any holiday that builds up must carry over.

This adds up. Someone taking the full 52 weeks of maternity leave accrues the whole 5.6 weeks of holiday during it, which is 28 days on a five-day week. If the leave year ends while they are still on maternity leave, all of it rolls forward. Unlike sickness carry-over, family-leave carry-over covers the full 5.6 weeks, not just the regulation 13 four weeks, and there is no 18-month cut-off.

                Smart move: Before starting maternity or paternity leave, talk to your employer about your accrued holiday. Many will let you tag it on before or after your family leave, effectively giving you more time at home. Always worth asking.
            

Employer prevented you from taking leave

If your employer stopped you from taking holiday, refused requests without offering alternatives, or never told you the leave would be lost, you can carry the untaken leave over. The duty to encourage workers to take leave and to warn them it will otherwise lapse comes from the European Court of Justice in Kreuziger (C-619/16) and Max-Planck (C-684/16), and is now set out in regulation 13(15) and (16) of the Working Time Regulations. Leave carried over on this ground rolls into the next leave year and keeps rolling until the employer stops failing.

So if your boss kept saying "now's not a good time" every time you tried to book a day off, and then turns around in March saying "you've lost your days": that's not going to fly. They can't hide behind a "use it or lose it" policy if they're the reason you couldn't use it.

Contractual Carry-Over

Any holiday above the 5.6-week statutory minimum is governed by your contract, not legislation. Your employer can set whatever carry-over rules they like for the extra days: allow it, limit it to 3-5 days, or ban it entirely. It's worth reading the annual leave section of your contract properly, because this is where the detail lives.

More and more employers now allow some carry-over as standard. Some offer "buy and sell" holiday schemes where you can trade unused days for cash or buy extra ones. These are entirely at the employer's discretion.

The COVID carry-over legacy

The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 let workers carry up to four weeks of leave into the following two leave years where taking it had not been reasonably practicable because of the pandemic. That provision was revoked on 1 January 2024 by the 2023 amendment regulations, with a transitional rule requiring any leave already carried over under it to be used by 31 March 2024. It no longer applies to anything. What it did leave behind is more generous employer policies, many of which stayed in place, so the staff handbook is worth checking.

Practical steps to protect your Holiday

Track your leave. Use our Holiday Entitlement Calculator to know exactly where you stand. Don't rely on your employer's records alone.
Book early. Don't wait until November to start using your days. Spread your leave throughout the year: better for you and avoids the year-end panic.
Know your leave year dates. It might run January to December, April to March, or from your start date. Check your contract.
Get refusals in writing. If your employer turns down a holiday request, ask for it in writing. That paper trail could be gold if you need to argue for carry-over later.
Read your contract. The carry-over policy and any deadlines should be in there. If it's not clear, ask HR to clarify in writing.

What happens to carried-over leave?

Sickness carry-over expires 18 months after the end of the leave year it accrued in. Carry-over arising from family leave or from an employer's failure has no equivalent statutory cut-off, though an employer can set reasonable time limits by policy.

If you leave with carried-over leave still unused, it must be paid out in your final pay under regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998, at your normal rate of pay.

The Takeaway

The carry-over rules aren't as simple as "use it or lose it," no matter what your employer says. The basic 4 weeks has much stronger protection than the extra 1.6 weeks. Sickness, family leave, and employer obstruction all create legal carry-over rights. And your contract might give you even more flexibility on top. Know the rules. Track your days. And don't let anyone shortchange you on holiday you've earned.